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Today's Featured Biography

 
Kenneth Corey

The fall of 1960 I entered the Navy ( on a Kiddie Cruise as I was still only 17) and completed boot camp in San Diego. That was followed by almost a year near Memphis, TN being trained as a Weapons Control Radar Technician (AQ-F) and resulted in being assigned to VF-101 Det-A in Oceana, VA. We received the first F-4H Phantoms assigned to the east coast and all went smoothly until October of 1962 when Khrushchev pounded his shoe on the table and we hurriedly transferred everything to Key West to stand hot-line duty during the Cuban Crisis. We were in the air, wheels up, and loaded with Sidewinders and Sparrows in three minutes. We weren’t worried because at that age we were going to live forever anyway.

    I returned to the Warren area in the fall of ‘63 and went to work at Sylvania - first in the Wire plant then in Metal Base as a machinist trainee. Thanksgiving night of ’65 was a major life event as I met my wife-to-be, Mary, while partying at the old Golden Gloves Club in Jamestown. We married in July 1967 and that corresponded with the Metal Base Plant moving to York, PA. I joined her father who owned Collins Sport Shop in Jamestown, running the hunting and fishing departments and stayed in retail until ‘74 when I left to go on the road selling for sporting goods distributors covering dealers in western PA and southwestern NY.

    In 1981 the growth of “800” numbers and Fische machines made it clear to me that a road salesman’s day were numbered. I went to work in the oil and gas production business joining Arrowhead Gas Producers in Olean, NY as a land/lease man and progressed up through Land Manager and Production Manager as the company downsized. In ‘85 the company went bankrupt and I joined with the CEO’s son in a partnership to buy all the assets from the bank. We produced about 25 gas wells in Warren and Chautauqua Counties and over 100 oil wells in Cattaraugus County. In ‘87 we purchased a drilling rig and drilled many of our own wells. We also opened the area’s first Ten Minute Oil Change business in Lakewood, NY where the Quality Market plaza eventually built.

    By 1993 oil was at $12 per barrel, natural gas was under $3/mcf and we were bleeding capital. We dissolved the partnership and I joined Cummins Engine as CNC grinder on the Cam Line. In 2000 I tested and interviewed my way into the Product Engineering department - associating with some of the finest people I’ve ever known and perhaps the finest job I ever held, retiring in 2009.

    Hunting and fishing have always been favorite hobbies of mine - though asthma and arthritis have limited my participation recently. Being afield led to my love of photography and the digital age has permitted me to almost ignore the mechanics of picture taking and concentrate on the subjects.

    The late 80’s and early 90’s found me participating heavily in the shotgun sports including trap, skeet, and sporting clays. Recently my shooting has been mostly confined to one of my many center fire rifles off a bench rest - punching holes in paper.

    Music has always been my true love and I’ve played guitar in Bluegrass bands since about 1964. The current band is Wind River and it includes my son Ken. We play at the Celoron Legion every Thursday night. I’ll attach a You Tube video of us playing at Mayville this spring.

Our three kids and five grandkids all live within about twenty minutes of us so I doubt we’ll be retiring anywhere tropical soon. It’s great to be able to keep the family ties strong. Daughter Jean is a Head Start teacher and just finishing up her Masters. Ken is an engineer at Cummins - I both worked with him and for him (now that’s a trip!!) - and Eric is a detective with the Jamestown P.D. The grandkids vary from 16 to 5 and they’re all really active - read that NOISY!! Life is good!! My wife and I subscribe to the theory that we’re never sorry when the good times are over - we’re just really happy that they happened

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