In 1970, he broke his neck and was paralyzed.
Doctors told him the best he could expect from life would be to sell magazine subscriptions over the phone.
Instead, he became an assistant district attorney, a husband, and the father of triplets.
Now he's written an inspiring memoir.
One-to-One with John DeDakis goes 1-2-1 with Ken Kunken.......and with Ken's entire family!
See and hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjiZPIlPhTU&list=PLXDV_HPUqtvvV-j0lyb2BsaZNSW3GCcDP&index=1
Even now, quadriplegic for the last 30 years, I never was as paralyzed as Ken, but I can identify with him perfectly as I found myself paralyzed completely from the neck down after my 1963 surgery to correct an anomaly in my spinal cord C4-C6 that occurred four years earlier when a classmate jumped on my neck while swimming. Lying there in the hospital, not sleeping for nearly 20 days with all kinds of crazy thoughts going through my mind.
I, too, was a college junior in industrial technology and athletic. But I was fortunate to have my legs come back and more use of my arms and hands after 5 weeks in the hospital when I was sent home to contemplate my future for the next 9 months. It was then, when I severed my close ties with my twin brother who had always been at my side up until then, including in college.
But I wasted no time getting back into college with a hand splint on my right hand that enabled me to write again and type with one finger. On an electric typewriter that a federal rehab program in our county rented for me along with college expenses until I graduated a year and a half later and went on to graduate school in industrial engineering. With me, it was always about independence and I eventually started living alone and even taking others in, in my houses.
Even so, there are many parallels in Ken's life to mine. I received assistance, but throughout my working life I have been able to pay taxes and give back to charities and causes. And save for my retirement. As my condition grew worse, like post polio syndrome, I needed attendants and could no longer live alone in 1992. I began hiring with no family or friends anywhere close.
Like Ken, I had several relationships and one failed marriage before hiring attendants. At first, I advertised in the local green sheet at the grocery stores. My 4th hire was the charm. Beh (Hoai Nguyen) was 15 years younger and started by helping me get to work in the morning and then with my evening meal and preparation for me to go to bed in the evening. As I grew worse, she took on more. All the while pursuing her own sewing until she was able to open her own shop in 2000.
About 1995, when both of us were capable of normal conception, we were advised not to have a child by a paralyzed social worker at TIRR because she felt that it would be too much of a burden on Beh. I've often thought about what it would be like to have had grown children now through college.
Watching the interview was like déjà vu. After starting my autobiography in 1992 typing it with one finger, I finally finished, Hanging by a Thread, in 2014. I believe it is very good for books like Ken's and mine to be available with so many young people being involved in so many sports these days that can easily result in spinal cord injury.
I will be checking out Ken's website.
Ron