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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