The Colorado branch of
the Kindel family has been based in Denver since my great grandfather,
George J. Kindel (left), came west in
1877 to seek his fortune selling bedding
to the silver miners. The family remained in the mattress business
until my father's retirement in the late 1980s. Had I stayed with
"firmware & extra-firmware" instead of software engineering, I
would have been the fourth generation to lead the
family business, which made and sold Serta®
mattresses and foundations throughout the states of Colorado,
Wyoming, Montana, most of New Mexico, and western Kansas. I also helped
to launch the first Mattress Factory® store at the factory in
Denver,
which was successful beyond all expectations and changed the way that
mattresses
are sold in the Denver area. My father, William H. Kindel, is to the right.
We have long referred to the life-size portrait to the left as "Scary
George." He terrified me as he hung above my dad's desk when I was
working summers at the factory in my youth.
I have become the de facto
genealogist for this branch of the Kindel family. As a result, I
have produced a CD-ROM and a web site containing family trees and
documents for the
Kindel, Danner (George's
wife's family), Harvey
(my paternal
grandmother's family), and Enberg (my
mother's family) that I share
with my far-flung cousins.
From 1997-2004, I owned a three bedroom townhome on Warren Lake in Fort
Collins.
Once I became a seminarian, I lived in a 400 square foot efficiency
apartment
across the street from the Episcopal
Theological
Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX. I graduated with an
M.Div. in May of 2007 and was subsequently ordained as a Transitional
Deacon in June and as an Episcopal Priest in December. I
then served the Episcopal Parish
Church of St. Charles the Martyr,
in Fort Morgan, Colorado through 2010, after which I became a "Bi-vocational"
Priest. I later supported myself as a technical professional (software
engineer), while serving congregations who are unable to affort full-time
professional clergy. I've been fully retired since 2020 (just in time
for Covid), though I continue to provide pulpit supply to Episcopal and Lutheran
congregations from time to time.
My mother, Jane Kindel (right), passed away in 2018 at the tender age of 95. My father passed
away
1998, and she waited 19 years, 8 months, and 3 days (but who's counting) to rejoin him.
One of the things I'm most thankful for is that I was able to be home
in
Colorado and in frequent contact with my father during the final year
and
a half of his life. My mother adapted well to his absence,
and
her deep faith in God (and something of a sense that my dad is watching
over her) help keep her going. In February of 2006, she moved
into assisted living at what was then the Village
at Johnson Center in Centennial, CO. Nine years later, in February 2015, she relocated to Balfour Senior Living in downtown Denver.
My elder son, Bob (center), has been married to his MIT sweetheart, Jessie Stickgold-Sarah
since the Summer Solstice of 1998. He graduated in
Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from MIT in 1995 and received his Ph. D.
in Aeronautics and Astronautics (with a heavy concentration on
robotics)
from Stanford University in
2001.
He is now the Vice
President of Finance for
Real-Time Innovations, a robotics software firm, which moved Bob
and Jessie back to
Massachusetts after graduation
for their New England office. Bob and Jessie purchased a
2-family
house in Somerville that they have renovated into a single-family
home.
(I gave them a copy of The Money Pit for moments when the
project
threatened to get the best of them. 8^) Jessie has been
supervising
the work while writing her first novel; she has recently completed a
Ph. D.
program
at Brandeis University (yet another doctor!). She is now on the
staff at MIT, helping students to become more capable writers.
Their
big news is that Jessie and Bob have adopted (Jessie referred to it as
"offshore outsourcing") a daughter, Violet BaoEr ("precious child")
Kindel Stickgold. She's the first grandchild, so her Chinese name
is certainly apropos.
Here are two photos that Jessie and Bob sent from
China, just a few days after the adoption was completed in late
January. Violet was about 11 months of age and 20 pounds at the
time. She is now a remarkable teen with her eyes on the future.
My younger son, Steve , is
a 1999 graduate cum laude in Biological and Engineering
Sciences from Washington University
in St. Louis. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree in
June of
2003 from the Ohio State University Department of Medicine. "Dr.
Steve" completed a residency in
Pediatrics at the
Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago, and he completed a
fellowship
in
pediatric cardiology in Cincinnati in 2010. Steve is married to
Dr. Tammy Venema, of Dayton, OH, who is a bariatric surgeon (MD + PhD), and they welcomed Jonah James Kindel on September
24, 2009. They have since welcomed twin sons, Davis & Devin, on January 19, 2019.
Tammy and Steve had a "destination wedding" in March, 2007 at a resort on St. Croix. I was able to represent the Kindel clan at their wonderful event.
My paradox (two doctors) is now complete, and then some! 8^)
One of the joys of returning home to Colorado was getting to know my
niece and nephews. My brother Win lives in
Westminster. In addition
to his "day job" as an ISO 9000 quality maven, Win
operates Precision Electronics out of his home as the Spirit
moves him. Julie, Win's wife of 29 years, passed away
unexpectedly in
November, 2005. She is greatly missed, but my niece and nephews
are her legacy and we give thanks for all that she gave to them and to
the rest of the family. He has since remarried, been widowed again, and (mostly) retired..
Mary, my niece, is a 2002 graduate with highest honors from the University of Colorado at Boulder. She is smart and funny and musically gifted and we're all immensely proud of her. Mary married Roelant van der Heijde in August of 2001 and they subsequently purchased my mother's house (aka "One South") in Denver. Mary has soared through her profession as an actuary, which has produced a surprising amount of travel (and frequent flyer miles) in service to her customers. That marriage ended in divorce, but Mary has since remarried (Nick Creten, another actuary) and relocated to Cedarburg, WI, while continuing to operate multiple practices as an Equity Partner at Milliman.
My nephews, Jon and Scott, are both grown and gone from the nest. Julie
home-schooled all three children through the 8th grade and she
obviously did a very
good job at it.
Jon has his father's tecnical aptitude, while Scott is the Executive
Director of an addicition recovery center in Steamboat Springs, CO.
I met Cynthia (left) on a Cursillo weekend in 2006.
After many years of single life (on both of our parts), our lives had
changed dramatically. Cynthia has two grown children.
Jeremiah ("Miah") is a recently-retired Chief Petty Officer in the US Navy,
formerly stationed in San
Diego. He is married and the father of Cynthia's two grandsons,
who she loved to spoil with toys she knew would drive their parents
nuts. (Christmas shopping with Cynthia was great fun as she
"cackled" her way through the noisier parts of the toy department.)
Cynthia's daughter Rachael (right), is graduate in Criminal Justice from
the University of Colorado at Denver. She rose through the ranks of
the Aurora Police Department's Police Explorer program, and was chosen to
attend a special leadership camp with the US Secret Service one summer.
After service as a Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff, Rachael is now a Patrol
and School Resource Officer for the Parker Police Department.
Now that I have found and married Bev Hayse, it's time to add her story. Bev was a Registered Nurse for many years , most recently as the Administrator
of several nursing homes in the Denver area. She was very skilled at
turning troubled facilities around to provide the best possible care to their
residents.
Bev and I were each widowed in 2019, and we met at a mutual friend's funeral
in 2022 at Trinity Episcopal Church, Greeley. A week or so later, Bev's
sense of hospitality led to an invitation to coffee after the Sunday service.
We "clicked" almost immediately. and since we're only six months apart
in age, we "get" each other's obscure references to the past.
We married on February 1, 2022, then had our union blessed (adding God
to the equation) by Trinity's retired Rector at the Episcopal Church of the
Transfiguration in Evergreen CO on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2022. Those
are our smiling faces in front of the altar on that happy day.
Since that time, I have sold my home in Fort Morgan (severely downsizing as I brought only the essentials) and moved
in to Bev's home in Greeley. I'm the computer/internet/entertainment
systems expert, while Bev is the creative part. In 2022, we added "split"
heat pump cooling to the upstairs bedrooms to make the house that much more
comfortable; in 2023, we're adding solar panels, which should cover nearly
100% of our electrical needs (including my all-electric IONIQ 5).
We enjoy traveling together, visiting our far-flung grandchildren in four
states and seeing new things. 2022 saw trips to Tulsa, San Francisco,
Boston (which included my 50th+2 Reunion from MIT), and Milwaukee. For
2023, we took a belated anniversary trip to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs,
and we will return to Milwauke via Cincinnati (Kindel Family Reunion). We
will also visit the Holy Land & Rome in the fall.
I am immensely proud of all of my/our children, who are making their
marks on the world both now and into the future. The next
generation looks pretty promising, also.
Back to my Home Page .