Ken Weber, nature writer

Peter, my oldest, is twelve. A month after his forth birthday Peter became the victim of the unfortunate condition known as LBS, or, Little Brother Syndrome. Evan was born and the condition appeared chronic.

I tried to find activities Peter and I could do together to reassure him that he wasn't going to be forgotten. When he was five, we started hiking.

A co-worker of mine, an avid naturalist, turned me on to Ken Weber's Walks and Rambles in Rhode Island. It is the definitive book of Rhode Island day hikes.

A couple years later I learned that Ken was doing a talk on animal tracks at the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. There was a talk one night and a walk the following weekend. The walk was booked up (I seem to find out about these things too late) but I got the chance to sit in on the talk. Before hand lots of people were milling about. It seems to me that I always end up at events where everybody already knew each other. I tried to blend in.

Some guy came up to me and started a conservation. After a few moments he introduced himself as Ken. I was taken aback. His manner was so easy going I hardly expected him to be the speaker. He is a published writer. He wrote a weekly nature column. He was famous. But it seemed he sought me out to make me feel comfortable, welcome. It was blown away.

Needless to say the talk was awesome. Frustrated that I couldn't participate in the walk, I promised myself I would someday hike with him.

On August 2nd of 2007, Ken Weber died.

During his life, I had never once read his weekly nature column. I didn't get the Saturday paper it was in, but that shouldn't have stopped me. Life is very busy for me. A good friend of recently mine gave me a copy of Wanderings, a collection of his weekly articles from the mid to late 1980's. His writing in his hiking books is very informational. But his nature stories, inspirational.

I met Ken just that once. He's been gone over a year now, but his writing still influences, still inspires my passion for nature. The more I get to know him through his writing, the more I feel I've lost a good friend. His knowledge, his passion, his curiosity. In no small part has his writing inspired me to create this blog.

There is much more about him than is contained in his Wikipedia entry. I created that in part to memorialize him, part to learn more about his life.

If Ken touched your life, please share.