Celebrating
Father’s Day
By
Glypie Grider
Staff Writer
Sunday’s
going to be hard for Mark Bess.
It’s the first Father’s Day since his dad, Kenneth,
died.
“I’ve been thinking about my dad a good bit lately,”
Mark admitted. “This Father’s Day is going to be tough,
but I temper that because I know my dad was a wonderful guy.”
“Mark’s the father he is today because of his dad,”
noted David “Milkweed” Wotier, a friend of the family
and pastor at Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church.
Mark, a sergeant with the Kentucky State Police who resides in
Owen County, has plenty of memories to carry him through the Father’s
Day weekend — all of them pleasant.
Like when Kenneth beamed proudly — and cried quietly —
as Mark exchanged his wedding vows with Machele.
“I’ll
never forget that picture of my dad on my wedding day,”
Mark said. “That’s how I’ll always think of
my dad.”
Or when his dad, an avid fisherman, would go fishing with his
son, Ben.
“Dad would always let Ben pick out a lure, no matter if
it was a brand new one or one that was 100 years old. Whatever
Ben wanted, Dad let Ben have it,” Mark remembered.
But perhaps more importantly, Mark will remember his dad for his
strong Christian presence.
“What made my dad what he was, was his faith — and
everyone that met him was aware of that,” Mark said.
A preacher for more than half of his life, Kenneth always felt
a calling to serve God, enough so that he enlisted in the Army
as a conscientious objector.
“Dad was raised Quaker and couldn’t raise a hand in
anger to anyone,” Mark explained.
But when the Army handed him a bugle instead of a rifle, Kenneth
withdrew his objector status.
Kenneth was a member of the 95th infantry and landed in Normandy
100 days after D-Day. Over half of his unit was killed in action.
“The other guys thought God stuck pretty close to my dad,”
Mark laughed.
Apparently, there were a few close encounters during the war,
instances in which Kenneth, had he not moved a second earlier,
could have easily been killed.
“Everyone in his unit stuck pretty close to him,”
Mark said.
After the war, Kenneth continued his Biblical studies at Cleveland
Bible College.
He met his wife, Doris, when he worked at a Christian bookstore.
She walked in, asking, “Do you have a girl to come home
to?”
She was asking about a book, of course, but Kenneth thought she
was scoping him out. He answered no. Then she took him out in
her Model-A car.
And so started their courtship. The couple married Feb. 14, 1953,
and Kenneth had “Come let us exhalt together” inscribed
on their wedding bands.
Bess served as a pastor in Ohio and Indiana for many years, stopped
only by a heart attack in 1992. He had bypass surgery, and right
before he went under the knife, Kenneth said “Lord, I’m
ready if you’re going to take me, but I sure would like
to stick around to see my grandchildren raised.”
Ben, 20, and Rebekah, 17, Mark’s two children, remember
their grandfather fondly. Ben remembers the fishing trips, but
more vividly, he remembers his grandfather’s dedication
to his faith.
“He would always set aside time to go sit at the kitchen
table and read the Bible,” Ben said. “I really admired
that.”
“My dad was just as great a grandpa, and my kids knew that,”
Mark said.
Passing on his love for Christ is something Kenneth inspired Mark
to do.
“I once heard that the most important thing you can do is
to pass the torch of the faith to the next generation. My dad
modeled that for me, and I try to do it with Ben and Rebekah.”
Mark said the scripture II Timothy 4:7, which was read at Kenneth’s
funeral, is especially appropriate: “I have fought the good
fight. I have completed the race. I have kept the faith.”
“My dad did those things. He taught me to be a father and
to be a Christian,” Mark said.
Kenneth was born May 12, 1921, and died March 6, 2007, at age
85 from congestive heart failure.
“I know I’ll get to see him again,” Mark said.
“Heaven’s a richer place because [my dad] is already
there.”
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