Kenneth Mark Dunipace

Who was Ken?

Ken Dunipace was a talented musician and beloved father. And he was our friend. Almost hree years ago, Ken succumbed to cancer, a disease he fought for several years. Ken died at the age of 34, leaving behind a wife, Lisa, and his young son, Ian.

Some thoughts from Lisa:

Ken sought to make each moment of his life count. He was always seeking truth and beauty, looking for deeper connections – hanging out with Ken meant catching up on what your life was about. Something he liked to do was to ask people what their life talent was. Not what you’re good at, or what you would put on your resume under “strengths”, but what makes you good at life, what you bring to the world. In his own words Ken’s life talent was: “to distill, to glean the essence of things, then bring it to light; to recognize essential value and acknowledge it.” Anyone who has ever worked with Ken knows that he would spend infinite amounts of time on getting just the right guitar sound, just the right take, and coaching you into just the right nuance. A perfectionist with a self-diagnosed borderline case of OCD, Ken kept track of things in life, from software serial numbers, backups of old 4 track songs, to the challenges and successes of his friends.

When Ken made a connection with someone it was a lasting bond. He had friends from every stage of his life – from his childhood neighborhood in Phoenix, preschool, high school, from his first band to his last, from English classes at U of A, from his year abroad in England, and from his many years and activities in Pasadena and Venice, CA..

The birth of Ian was the most welcome of all surprises in our lives – tests had shown that chemotherapy had limited our possibility of conception. Ken, despite his pre-birth uncertainties, proved to be a natural as a father, always looking for new ways to engage Ian’s budding mind and to fulfill his changing needs - and changing his diapers…

Ken was not a perfect man, but he was committed to growing as a human being, which made him an extraordinary man. He was a wonderful partner in life and parenthood, a thoughtful and caring son and a true friend to his sister. There are many who miss his presence in our world.

Lisa Hornung

This excerpt from “what I might say on my wedding day” seems like something Ken would say to all who make this special event happen:

From my illness has come the understanding that death isn’t something that happens to other people. It’s real for me and I recognize that it’s real for everyone who has ever been and ever will be given a chance to live.
As I see it, right now, we are all being given a chance to live, to be alive and experience life as it unfolds. It is in this spirit and from this awareness that this moment derives its full power and meaning for me.
I am in awe of this day, of the people who have chosen to gather whom I know and love, of the feelings I feel, of the love, of the lives, each life, we bring here in unity and celebration; the fact that we can know and recognize that we are being given a chance to live every moment we are alive and can rejoice in our tenuous and majestic state; that we don’t reason away love, passion, fear, anger, sorrow, hope; that we live with these things and not in denial of them because they are us. These are our motivations to live…

Ken Dunipace, 10.12.1996