Every single day Ken Stevens performed his job with professionalism. As a photojournalist, he always treated people with dignity and respect, holding himself to a high standard of ethics. Most importantly, Ken was a first-rate person, enhancing the lives of everybody around him. He mentored me through high school, college and my first job at The Muskegon Chronicle.
One of my favorite Ken stories was when I was shadowing him as a student. It happened to be during the Muskegon Air Fair and we got to go up in a giant military transport plane. As we were strapped in, they opened the back to take pictures of Lake Michigan. After we were on the ground, Ken could tell I was amped up and said with a smile, “Now, Cory, everyday at the newspaper isn’t like this.” I just nodded but we both knew I was sold on a career.
My heart breaks for his wonderful family. I’m going to miss Ken very much and the Muskegon community lost a real treasure today.