Obituary

Ken Wilson was born April 11, 1948. His parents were Douglas G. Wilson and Marian Wiederhold Wilson. He died on June 12, 2024, age 76.

He and his family were all born in Detroit, Michigan.

In 1958, the family moved to Kokomo, Indiana, when his father was transferred from his job at General Motors to Delco Radio. Ken graduated from Kokomo High School and Indiana University, Bloomington.

Ken married Karyn Elyse Pierson in November 1969. They would have been married 55 years in 2024.

In 1983, Ken and Karyn relocated to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In 1995, they built their dream home in the Governor’s Club south of Chapel Hill in beautiful Chatham County.

Ken began working with the Fails Management Institute (FMI), Raleigh, in 1987, where he spent 30 challenging and enjoyable years. He traveled extensively around the eastern US finding contacts for FMI’s management consulting workshops and training. His friendly manner led the way to many successful contracts for him.

Ken inherited from his dad a love of electronic gadgets and the ability to build and fix things. He loved working on his house, doing everything from replacing a marble countertop to repairing the dishwasher. He collected records and later CDs, and reveled in his 50-CD player, carefully making lists of his favorites and stacking and restacking them.

Ken inherited from his mother her love of flowers and gardening, reading, making art and doing puzzles and games. He stuck to pencil and paper for crosswords and Sudoku long after the apps came out.

Ken was an avid music fan; some of his favorites were Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon and Steely Dan. Ken organized several Land Shark bus trips to Jimmy Buffett concerts for himself and his fellow Parrot Heads. He and Karyn attended many concerts. Ken had a collection of ticket stubs dating back to the Sixties.

Ken loved meeting people and telling stories. After he joined FMI many of his tales began with, “I sat next to this guy on an airplane…”

Ken was the life of the party. He was an excellent host, standing behind his counter and serving food and drinks. He loved to cook – some of his specialties being crêpes, mac and cheese and egg salad, another love he inherited from his mom.

He volunteered for various local organizations including Habitat for Humanity with a build team of FMI employees. Later, he volunteered at The Learning Trail preschool located in the Nature Trail neighborhood, a trailer park just down the road from the entrance to Governor’s Club.

Ken’s family traveled when he was a kid, crossing the country in a Chevy station wagon, toting a tent or pulling a pop-up trailer. He and Karyn continued the travel tradition, but upped the ante by flying to many countries around the world, using some of the millions of frequent flyer points Ken accumulated while working at FMI. They visited France, Czechoslovakia, Australia, South America, Singapore, Africa, to name a few – and Ken’s favorite, Italy.

Ken had maps of the USA and the world in his home office with visits marked with pins in all 50 US states, and many continents.

Ken was preceded in death by his parents and his son-in-law Thomas Jorgensen.

Ken is survived by his wife Karyn; by his son Andy and his wife Ryan, and their children Alix and Meritt; and by his daughter Adrianne Wilson Wootton and her husband Tobias.

He is also survived by his sisters Holly Sweet and her husband John and her son John, and Maggie Wilson and her husband Paul.

We will miss Ken’s beautiful smile and charming personality that could light up a room.