- Date Of Birth: November 7, 1959
- Date Of Death: March 17, 2016
- State: Idaho
Ken Clausen of Boise died suddenly of natural causes on March 17th, 2016.
Ken was born to Melvin and Gertrude Clausen on Nov. 7th, 1959 at St. Luke’s in Boise—a fact he often mentioned with pride. He was baptized at St.
After a year at the Colorado School of Mines, Ken made good on his Idaho promise, transferring to the University of Idaho, where his father had also graduated. He never left the state to live elsewhere again. At the U of I he soon met the love of his life, Wendy Newman. Three weeks after their first kiss, the couple was engaged.
After graduation, Ken eventually found a job at the Idaho Transportation Department. He spent a short time in Pocatello, where his son Daniel was born, until he and his growing young family moved to Boise. Eric and Katie were both born in St. Luke’s, just like their father. He would work at ITD Headquarters in the Bridge Department for the rest of his exemplary career. While he greatly enjoyed his work—showing off his elegant calculus formulas, or explaining the finer points of bridge materials—he was looking forward to his retirement from the state in about a year, and was busy making plans for adventures and new professional endeavors.
Ken leaves a material legacy in the form of beautiful bridges across the state, including his magnum opus, the new Broadway Bridge in the heart of Boise. He loved Idaho all his life, and spent much of his time outdoors. His exhaustive knowledge of western geography was hard to believe. He twice climbed Borah Peak, had rafted many of the state’s rivers, hunted elk, deer, and chukar, and seemed to be familiar with every creek drainage. While he often went to the hills alone or with his hunting buddies, he best loved to hunt, fish, hike, and camp with his family.
His Christian faith was at the center of his life. He was a life long Lutheran, and his faith was deeply rooted in both his head and heart.
He was a passionately curious man, constantly seeking both truth and beauty. He tried always to maintain a generous spirit toward those he met and knew. He liked to tell funny stories, but often had trouble getting to the punch line through his own laughter. He loved his three children with abandon, and always encouraged them in everything, most especially their education (which included impromptu physics lectures at the dinner table). All three have gone on to earn advanced degrees as an English professor, a pastor, and a history teacher, a great point of pride for Ken.
He is survived by his dearly beloved wife Wendy, and their three children, Daniel, Eric, and Katie Clausen; his parents Mel & Gert and his two sisters: Ann Halvorson and her husband Mark, Janet Brooks and her husband Dana; his father- and mother-in-law Hal and Merlyn Newman, and many cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. He remains a part of the lives and memories of uncountable relatives, friends, and neighbors who look forward to a reunion in heaven.
