Ken always loved books. He said books essentially changed his life, and he wanted to keep them to always be around him.
At Ken’s funeral, Father Mike said:
“Ken loved history. He loved novels. He always remembered the librarian who helped him to get his first library card. She told him to read Jack London’s 'Call of the Wild.' It changed his life. That librarian helped Ken to discover the joy of reading, a joy he shared with his children and grandchildren. Reading was, for Ken, a place of peace in a sometimes chaotic world.”
When we bought our house in Richmond in 1996, the first thing we did was redesign the formal living room and turn it into a library for Ken.
Most of the books are related to history. There are a lot of books on George Washington, the Civil War, Revolutionary War, World War I and World War II. He read the vast majority of them. He just loved his books and loved to be surrounded by them. He always said, “A book is your friend because you can go back and visit it again and again.”