Known as the firecracker baby, Kenneth Warren Snelling was born on the fourth of July, 1924. He passed away peacefully on December 11, 2022. He was the youngest of six children born to Orange Culver and Delia (Redeker) Snelling. After graduating from Tipton High School, OK, he enrolled at Oklahoma A&M in 1942 and entered the army soon afterward. He served in the 1258th Combat Engineer Battalion and built bridges ahead of advancing allied forces.
After returning from WWII in 1946, Ken farmed with his dad and brother Elmo, bought a farm, and in 1955 he finished his bachelor’s degree at Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, TX. During the years following the war, he developed a guidance system for his Johnny Popper tractor, broke his back in an accident moving an airplane hangar, and, with his brother, followed ripening wheat from Texas to North Dakota to pay for a new combine.
The farm, however, could not hold him. He was enrolled at Golden Gate Baptist Seminary in Berkley, CA when he met his future bride. He completed a MS at Oklahoma A&M in 1957, married Erleen Gaskin on August 23, 1958, and started a Ph.D. at Kansas State University in Manhattan. Daughter Taressa was born in Manhattan, and son Warren in Hiawatha, Kansas while Ken was supervising KSU’s Powhattan Experiment Field. Afterward, he collected research data at the Garden City Experiment Station and returned to Manhattan in 1966 to finish his dissertation in May 1968.
That triggered the adventure to Afghanistan. Ken, Erleen, and their children arrived in Kabul in June 1968. For the next five years, Ken served as Soils Advisor to Kabul University, where he taught Agronomy, kept research plots in Jalalabad, and traveled the country consulting with Afghan farmers. A year in Stillwater, OK followed, then on to Caney, KS where he taught at the SEK Vo-Tech farm in Tyro. Back to Hiawatha and teaching at Highland Community College was next. After retirement from Highland in 1989, he and Erleen moved to Manhattan again, where they were active in the First Baptist Church and Gideons International. In retirement, he held a part-time job as a bank courier which he loved. When Erleen passed away in 2006, he returned to Plainview and continued his church and Gideons activities. He went to live with Taressa and her husband Barry in Maryland in 2017.
Ken had a strong Christian faith and loved the Lord with all his heart. This was his passion and was evident throughout his life.
Ken is survived by two children, Taressa (Snelling) Fisher and her husband Barry of Waldorf, MD; and Warren Mark Snelling and wife Lynetta of Lawrence, NE.
On January 12, 2023, the family will receive friends for the visitation from 10:00 am to 11:00 am with the celebration of life service beginning at 11:00 am at Hughesville Baptist Church, 8505 Old Leonardtown Rd, Hughesville, MD 20637.
Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Gideons International, https://gideons.org/donate or Doctors Without Borders, https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/.
Condolences can be made to the family at www.brinsfieldfuneral.com.
Arrangements by Brinsfield Funeral Home & Crematory, P.A., Charlotte Hall, MD.
