Remembering Ken
Hamel

1957-2009
Kenneth Warren Hamel
was born December 28, 1957 in Lancaster,
Wisconsin, the
first child
of his parents, Warren and Anneliese Hamel.
Kenneth’s
childhood
was spent in Wisconsin where he had his
elementary and
secondary
education. Kenneth was always an excellent
student and showed
a great
love of mathematics and computer science.
He spent a large
portion of
his youthful savings on an “assemble
yourself” computer.
Much of his time
was spent
on the small Hamel farm in the country just
outside of
Watertown,
Wisconsin. Here Kenneth helped take care of the
animals, garden,
and
yard—where he played with his two brothers, two
sisters, cousins,
neighbors,
and friends.
Kenneth attended
Laurelbrook
Academy his sophomore year in high
school. This
was his
first introduction to the self-supporting work
in the Seventh-day
Adventist
Church and his love for this work only
grew as he became
older. He would later attend and work at Weimar
Institute and Uchee
Pines.
After high school,
Kenneth
joined the United States Air Force where he
graduated from his
training
in computer engineering. His parents were
informed that he
had
completed his testing with the highest score ever
achieved to date.
Kenneth used the
scholarship
from the Air Force to attend the
University of
Wisconsin,
River Falls where he continued his training
in the growing
field of
computer and information sciences.
It was during this
time that
Kenneth challenged his sister Maureen to
read a beautifully
bound-in-red set of the Conflict of the Ages
series. He
motivated
her by saying if she did read them he would give
her the set.
His plan
worked and Maureen read the books every morning
as she was going
through the
last years of elementary school.
Everyone should
have a big
brother like Kenneth!
After finishing his
studies
at University of Wisconsin, River Falls,
Kenneth programmed
for a
variety of computer software companies and
was delighted to
put aside
enough money to launch into the work he
loved the
most—developing
computer software for the Bible and the
writings of Ellen
G. White.
In 1991, Kenneth,
who loved
his Lord and His Word, was prompted by
necessity to create
a
Macintosh software version of the Bible. Being
a Macintosh
programmer he
embarked on what became a long-term
commitment to
create quality
Bible software.
"I was a Bible
student and a
Mac user," he once said, "but I couldn't
find anything that
was
usable for serious Bible study on the
Macintosh. The only
programs
available that I felt were functional and
offered the
resources I
needed were PC based. As it turns out, I
wasn't the only Mac
user
looking for such a program." Ken developed
Online Bible for
Mac. Its
distribution is based firmly on the
principle of grace
not greed
which, as in all areas of his life, was
Kenneth's
philosophy of
service. Along with many others who have
worked on this
project, he
did so with a desire to make God's Word
readily available
to
computer users in a form that will enhance their
Bible study.
Probably the one
thing that
most amazes those who know him personally,
is the tremendous
effort he
has gone through during the last two years
to develop the
newest
Universal application of Online Bible for Mac,
considering the
debilitating
health problems and pain he was
suffering. Now,
just as the
work is virtually complete, he has been
able to pass the
torch to a
team who are blessed with the privilege of
carrying on his
vision and
ministry.
It was about 15
years ago
that Kenneth first visited the White
Estate’s Branch
Office at
Andrews University, to lobby for and offer
his services to
help produce
a Macintosh version of Ellen G. White’s
Writings. Being a
skilled
programmer, Kenneth offered to do for the
Writings of Ellen
White what
he had done for Online Bible, pioneering
the development of
an Apple
Macintosh application.
From that time
onward,
Kenneth, with his programming expertise and
Macintosh savvy,
became an
incredibly valued partner of the White
Estate. Between
1995 and
2005, Kenneth’s dedicated help as consultant,
programmer, beta
tester, and
problem solver, was critical to the White
Estate’s successful
production and support of three successive
revisions of a Mac
version
of the CD. For all of his indispensable
work, Kenneth never
asked
for any recompense. He did it all as a
labor of
love—Kenneth’s
free-will offering to his God, his church, and
his fellow
Macintosh users.
Kenneth moved to
Beersheba
Springs, Tennessee, in 1997 where he made
many friends in the
community and in the church. He enjoyed many
walks in the wooded
mountains and many bicycle rides on the country
roads. Still,
most of
his time remained committed to the Online Bible
and Ellen White
reference
media.
In 2003, handheld
PDAs had
become very popular among many users.
Kenneth owned a
Pocket PC
and wanted to be able to take to church or
Bible studies, all
the
writings of Ellen White on a handheld device.
He had a dream to
be able to
read, search, highlight, make personal
notes or bookmarks
in these
writings, anywhere he traveled without
been tethered to
his
computer. He contacted Laridian, a handheld Bible
Software company,
and forged
new relationships with them. This enabled
the White Estate to
embrace
yet another innovative form of
distributing the
writings of
Ellen G. White on Palm and Pocket PC
devices. Kenneth
spent the
next two years of his life developing the
Ellen G. White
Writings PDA
eBook Collection for release at the 2005
General Conference
session.
When this was
completed,
Kenneth then embarked on tagging all of Ellen
G. White’s
published
writings, Manuscript Releases, Biographies, and
Noah Webster’s 1828
American
Dictionary. Many challenges lay ahead
with creating this
software,
but every challenge was met with
Kenneth’s masterful
expertise. Nothing ever made him stumble or give
up. Each day was a
new
challenge that had to be mastered. His positive
attitude, kindness
of
spirit, and tenacity allowed Kenneth to
accomplish more in
a short
period of time than a team of people could
accomplish in a
year. Such
was his dedication and skill. Kenneth
developed for the
White
Estate three successive upgrades to the PDA
eBook collection.
His gift
and legacy to the White Estate will live
on. Countless
numbers of
users have benefited from Kenneth’s software
development. We
will never
know until we join together in the kingdom
of God, how many
friends
Kenneth has brought closer to Christ through
his lifetime of
dedicated
service to the spreading of the Gospel
electronically.
Kenneth was
a software evangelist pioneer. Kenneth was
ever so thankful
and humbled
that God saw fit to use his talent in
developing software
to
spread the Word of God through Online Bible and
his work with the
White
Estate producing both Macintosh and PDA
versions of Ellen
White’s
writings.
Kenneth friendship
always
extended way beyond, indeed above, his
generous and
competent
technical help. When you met him it didn’t take
long before his
primary
motivating force became apparent—Kenneth’s
love for God, His
Word, and
the special light entrusted to the remnant
church through the
Gift of
Prophecy. All who knew him personally came
to a deeper,
closer,
stronger walk with God. Kenneth’s commitment to
working for his
Lord and His
church has left a software legacy for
many to enjoy for
years to
come. Kenneth’s faith-filled, conscientious
life of devotion,
obedience,
study, challenged us all. His service and
dedication
impressed,
inspired, and brought those he interacted with
to a closer
relationship
with their God.
Kenneth began to
have pain
about two years ago and sought numerous
medical
consultations. He
learned just weeks ago that he had lung
cancer that had
metastasized
throughout his body, including his
spine—the cause of
his high
intensity of pain.
Kenneth will be
remembered
as a loving brother and son, a caring
friend, a dedicated
Christian, a servant of God, a scholar of the
Bible and the
writings of
Ellen G. White. “And I heard the voice from
heaven saying,
‘Write,
Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from
henceforth: yea,
saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their
labors; for their
works
follow with them.’” Revelation 14:13
Kenneth’s family
and friends
look forward to the soon fulfillment of
the promise that
“Jesus will
come to save His children and to give
them the finishing
touch of
immortality. ‘This corruptible shall have
put on
incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality.’
The graves will be
opened,
and the dead will come forth victorious,
crying, ‘O death,
where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?’
Our loved ones who
sleep in
Jesus will come forth clothed with
immortality.
“And as
the redeemed shall ascend to heaven, the gates of the
city of God will
swing back,
and those who have kept the truth will
enter in. A voice,
richer
than any music that ever fell on mortal ear,
will be heard
saying, ‘Come,
ye blessed of My Father, inherit the
kingdom prepared
for you
from the foundation of the world.’ Then the
righteous will
receive their
reward. Their lives will run parallel
with the life of
Jehovah.
They will cast their crowns at the
Redeemer's feet,
touch the
golden harps, and fill all heaven with rich
music.”—Ellen G.
White,
Signs, April 15, 1889.
Kenneth is survived
by his
father and mother, Warren and Anneliese
Hamel, of Harrah,
Oklahoma;
his brother, Ben Hamel and spouse, of
Potasky, Michigan;
his
sister, Christine Thomas and spouse, of
Sacramento,
California; his
sister, Maureen Craig and spouse, of
Carmichael,
California; his
brother Greg Hamel and spouse, of San
Francisco,
California; two
nieces, two nephews, and two great nephews.
Memorial
contributions can
be made on behalf of Ken Hamel to the
following
institutions he
has named as recipients of his estate:
a.
Ellen G. White Estate, Connecting with Jesus Project; 12501
Old Columbia Pike,
Silver
Spring MD 20904
Online
contributions:
http://www.connectingwithjesus.org
b.
Laymen Ministries, 414 Zapada Rd., St. Maries, ID 83861
Online
contributions:
http://www.lmn.org
c.
Maranatha Volunteers International, 1600 Sacramento Inn Way,
Suite 116,
Sacramento, CA
95815
Online
contributions:
http://www.maranatha.org
d.
Uchee Pines Institute, 30 Uchee Pines Road, Seale, Alabama 36875-5702
Online
contributions:
http://www.ucheepines.org
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