Sorensen, Ken

From Spearfish Lake Tales Wiki

Ken Sorensen is a lead character in The Next Generation. He is the younger son of Chet and Lydia Sorensen and has an older brother, Tom. Ken grew up with the understanding that the family farm in Arvada Center would go to Tom. Ken was studying agricultural business administration at Western State when events required he drop out in the spring of 1985. One of his friends is Bob Watson who often helps out on the Sorensen farm.

Ken was is persuaded by Lori Mattson to take Judy Niven to the Willow Lake high school prom, despite the fact that she was crippled in a car accident a number of years before.^TNG01 They start dating and while visiting his family's farm she surprisingly saves the life of Ken's father.^TNG03 He graduated from High School in the spring of 1983.

Ken commuted to Hinckley Junior College for a year before transferring to Western State in 1984. Ken and Judy marry over the Thanksgiving, 1984, weekend and return to Athens to an apartment they share while attending college.

Tom Sorenson died in late February, 1985^TNG12, so Ken and Judy left college at the end of the semester to work the farm. The couple moved into the house formerly owned by Ken's Uncle Ed, across the road from the farm. Chet died later that fall.^TNG14 The farm is in financial trouble and the only way Ken can keep it going is to abandon a lot of what his father and brother had been doing.

By the fall of 1986, the farm is in much better shape and they are expecting their first child. They have three children Phil, Chet and Tom. In the winter of 1993, Phil is a first grader and the couple were expecting another child.^RM10

Sometime in the next decade, the Sorensen family combine with the Watson's in a combined operation to raise cows for the Griswold milk factory. Judy and Ken also work with Spearfish Lake Outfitters, leading kayak trips to Isle Royale in the fall.^FtS18