Kendrick Allen Westbrook passed away at the VA of Reno on March 18th, 2014. His family was by his side until the very end.
The eldest of three brothers, Ken was born in Los Angeles, California on October 24th, 1925 to Duke and Mae Westbrook.
Ken’s life reads like a work of great fiction. As a teenager he was a record-setting high school track runner, planted trees and fought fires on Mount Shasta and worked on a cattle ranch in Lancaster, CA. When he was 18, he served the last two years of World War II in the Army Corps of Engineers in Germany. He told vivid stories of the violent Atlantic steamer crossing (he enjoyed it) and was in the Battle of the Bulge where he witnessed the destruction of the Bridge at Remagen. Upon his return to the States he worked at Lake Placid, learning to ski on 12’ boards and hobnobbing with the likes of Noel Coward, Dick Button and Irene Dunn. A born sailor, he returned to San Diego in the 1950s where he commercial fished off the coasts of Southern California and Mexico. He later earned his teaching degree through the GI Bill at San Diego State University.
He met his wife, Shirley H. Vaughan, in San Diego through her neighbor, his mother. Six weeks later they were married in Reno, and they went skiing at Lake Tahoe for their honeymoon. Two daughters later, Ken and Shirley moved their family to Dorris, CA where he taught shop and math for 2 years. They welcomed a son, and the family returned to San Diego, where he taught outdoor education to innumerable 5th graders at nearby Camp Cuyamaca. In 1964 he took a teaching position at Dilworth Junior High School in Sparks where he taught woodshop, metal shop, mechanical drawing and math for over 20 years. He also took students rock climbing, mountaineering, caving, diving, hiking and camping with his great friend Ed Tribble. He also taught skiing at Sky Tavern and was a basketball coach who believed that every kid who wanted to play got to play – there were no benchwarmers on his mostly losing teams. It is not surprising that many former students say that he was the best teacher they ever had.
He gleefully excelled at racquetball and played and co-managed the Over-75 Men’s Softball League. At 80 years old he was the team’s pinch runner. He thoroughly enjoyed all spectator sports, and was an avid follower of UNR women’s basketball and men’s football, and spent 19 years volunteering to run the basketball clock for the kids’ games at Mendive Middle School.
Ken especially loved traveling – with Shirley, with family and friends, and solo. He circumnavigated Mount Blanc, sailed through the Panama Canal with his son, trekked through the Sahara desert on the backs of camels, took a ship to Antarctica, stood across the European/American continental plates in Iceland, sipped tea high above the timberline with Sherpas in Nepal, helicopter-skied in the Ruby Mountains, explored caves, and prospected for turquoise in eastern Nevada. And he never went anywhere without binoculars, a swim suit, a rock hammer and a geology guide.
He sang with the UNR choir before joining The Reno Opera Choir, where he sang as a tenor for over 20 years. He loved it all, the music, the rehearsals, the costumes, the acting, the singing, the performing, the community. He especially loved musical theater - The Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury and his favorite, Annie Get Your Gun. Ken was enthusiastic for all forms of live entertainment. Once, in a casino show performance, Charo sat on his lap and coo-chee-cooed. It was his birthday.
Ken read incessantly on all subjects, goofed around with astronomy and photography, ran categories in Jeopardy, and enrolled in at least one UNR course in any given semester. He marched in No More Nukes protests, was devoted to environmental causes, supported civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights, and had a sense of justice that informed all of his interactions with everyone. He was fearless, endlessly funny, a relentless flirt, an avid adventurer and devoted teacher, a teller-of-bad-puns and passionately mediocre at around-the-campfire acoustic guitar.
Ken was a consummate social butterfly who made friends with everyone, all the time, everywhere, but above all else he was an incredible family man. He imparted his skills, insights and passions to two generations, but often told his children and grandchildren “I taught you everything you know and you STILL don’t know anything”. Ken, a man who travelled the world and accomplished so much, would pull his children aside to tell them ”you were the best thing that ever happened to me”.
He was a true renaissance man who never ever said no to any new experience or exciting adventure. He was small, only 5’5” (or was it 5’9”?), but he lived large in every way.
Ken is survived by his great friend Shirley Westbrook, his daughter Dona Westbrook and her kids Dr. Alia Moore and Kiel Moore; daughter Rene Westbrook, her husband Dan Morin and their daughter Annabelle Morin; son Dr. Chris Westbrook and husband Scott Kline; brother Frank Hallock Jr., his wife Beth and their children Frank Hallock V, Dan Hallock and his children Jayden and River, and Tammy Berry, her husband Donald and their sons Will and Ben; and a phenomenal group of loving, witty, creative, active, intelligent and generous friends. His motto was “just happy to be here” and his enthusiasm and endless joy for living will be greatly missed.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made in Ken’s name to K.I.N.D.: Kids in Need of Desks, which provides tens of thousands of desks to hundreds of schools in Africa to students who would otherwise work on the dirt floors of overcrowded classrooms. Ken received a donation on his behalf from his son Chris in 2013 and eagerly supported the cause.
The eldest of three brothers, Ken was born in Los Angeles, California on October 24th, 1925 to Duke and Mae Westbrook.
Ken’s life reads like a work of great fiction. As a teenager he was a record-setting high school track runner, planted trees and fought fires on Mount Shasta and worked on a cattle ranch in Lancaster, CA. When he was 18, he served the last two years of World War II in the Army Corps of Engineers in Germany. He told vivid stories of the violent Atlantic steamer crossing (he enjoyed it) and was in the Battle of the Bulge where he witnessed the destruction of the Bridge at Remagen. Upon his return to the States he worked at Lake Placid, learning to ski on 12’ boards and hobnobbing with the likes of Noel Coward, Dick Button and Irene Dunn. A born sailor, he returned to San Diego in the 1950s where he commercial fished off the coasts of Southern California and Mexico. He later earned his teaching degree through the GI Bill at San Diego State University.
He met his wife, Shirley H. Vaughan, in San Diego through her neighbor, his mother. Six weeks later they were married in Reno, and they went skiing at Lake Tahoe for their honeymoon. Two daughters later, Ken and Shirley moved their family to Dorris, CA where he taught shop and math for 2 years. They welcomed a son, and the family returned to San Diego, where he taught outdoor education to innumerable 5th graders at nearby Camp Cuyamaca. In 1964 he took a teaching position at Dilworth Junior High School in Sparks where he taught woodshop, metal shop, mechanical drawing and math for over 20 years. He also took students rock climbing, mountaineering, caving, diving, hiking and camping with his great friend Ed Tribble. He also taught skiing at Sky Tavern and was a basketball coach who believed that every kid who wanted to play got to play – there were no benchwarmers on his mostly losing teams. It is not surprising that many former students say that he was the best teacher they ever had.
He gleefully excelled at racquetball and played and co-managed the Over-75 Men’s Softball League. At 80 years old he was the team’s pinch runner. He thoroughly enjoyed all spectator sports, and was an avid follower of UNR women’s basketball and men’s football, and spent 19 years volunteering to run the basketball clock for the kids’ games at Mendive Middle School.
Ken especially loved traveling – with Shirley, with family and friends, and solo. He circumnavigated Mount Blanc, sailed through the Panama Canal with his son, trekked through the Sahara desert on the backs of camels, took a ship to Antarctica, stood across the European/American continental plates in Iceland, sipped tea high above the timberline with Sherpas in Nepal, helicopter-skied in the Ruby Mountains, explored caves, and prospected for turquoise in eastern Nevada. And he never went anywhere without binoculars, a swim suit, a rock hammer and a geology guide.
He sang with the UNR choir before joining The Reno Opera Choir, where he sang as a tenor for over 20 years. He loved it all, the music, the rehearsals, the costumes, the acting, the singing, the performing, the community. He especially loved musical theater - The Pirates of Penzance, Trial by Jury and his favorite, Annie Get Your Gun. Ken was enthusiastic for all forms of live entertainment. Once, in a casino show performance, Charo sat on his lap and coo-chee-cooed. It was his birthday.
Ken read incessantly on all subjects, goofed around with astronomy and photography, ran categories in Jeopardy, and enrolled in at least one UNR course in any given semester. He marched in No More Nukes protests, was devoted to environmental causes, supported civil rights, women’s rights and gay rights, and had a sense of justice that informed all of his interactions with everyone. He was fearless, endlessly funny, a relentless flirt, an avid adventurer and devoted teacher, a teller-of-bad-puns and passionately mediocre at around-the-campfire acoustic guitar.
Ken was a consummate social butterfly who made friends with everyone, all the time, everywhere, but above all else he was an incredible family man. He imparted his skills, insights and passions to two generations, but often told his children and grandchildren “I taught you everything you know and you STILL don’t know anything”. Ken, a man who travelled the world and accomplished so much, would pull his children aside to tell them ”you were the best thing that ever happened to me”.
He was a true renaissance man who never ever said no to any new experience or exciting adventure. He was small, only 5’5” (or was it 5’9”?), but he lived large in every way.
Ken is survived by his great friend Shirley Westbrook, his daughter Dona Westbrook and her kids Dr. Alia Moore and Kiel Moore; daughter Rene Westbrook, her husband Dan Morin and their daughter Annabelle Morin; son Dr. Chris Westbrook and husband Scott Kline; brother Frank Hallock Jr., his wife Beth and their children Frank Hallock V, Dan Hallock and his children Jayden and River, and Tammy Berry, her husband Donald and their sons Will and Ben; and a phenomenal group of loving, witty, creative, active, intelligent and generous friends. His motto was “just happy to be here” and his enthusiasm and endless joy for living will be greatly missed.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks for donations to be made in Ken’s name to K.I.N.D.: Kids in Need of Desks, which provides tens of thousands of desks to hundreds of schools in Africa to students who would otherwise work on the dirt floors of overcrowded classrooms. Ken received a donation on his behalf from his son Chris in 2013 and eagerly supported the cause.
