Ken Kolb(1926-2016)
- Writer
Ken Kolb (full name: Kenneth Lloyd Kolb) was the only child of Fred and Ella Kolb. During World War II, he graduated from Gresham High in Oregon and joined the Navy to become a radar technician. In the fall of 1947, he entered the University of California on the G.I. Bill. His Theta Chi roommate introduced him to nursing student Emma Sanford and that was the beginning to a six-year courtship and 64 years of marriage. They were married in 1952 and spent the next two summers working on the Smith Peak Fire Lookout in Plumas County, California. Ken got started in the screenwriting business when Columbia hired him to write "The Seventh Voyage Of Sinbad" (1958). Writing for TV provided enough income for him to indulge in his original ambition to be a novelist. His first novel was "Getting Straight" in 1967. "The Couch Trip" followed in 1970 and "Night Crossing" was published in 1974. The first two books were made into movies. By this time, Kolb and his wife had started a family and returned to Plumas County. In a house on Long Valley Creek in Cromberg, they raised their son Kevin and daughters Lauren and Kimrie. The Kolbs traveled to Europe, Mexico, New Zealand, Tahiti and Fiji. After the children were grown, he and Emma traveled (often with friends) to South America, Australia, China, Russia and the Canadian Rockies. "Ken always felt that Plumas County was the best place of all," according to his obituary in the Plumas News. It continued: "Ken felt good about his life. He was grateful for his wonderful wife and soulmate and the time they had together. He was thankful for his three beautiful children and his home in the peaceful countryside. He felt joyful and thankful for the friendships that nurtured his intellect and spirit. He was thankful to have lived the life he wanted. He died peacefully at his home with his loving family by his side."
