Kenneth Lee Barley

December 12, 1932 – September 22, 2026

 One of Ken’s first memories is of walks with his father after work to the nearby Niagara River in Buffalo, NY. Before he was born, his father, Samuel Ray, had moved from Pennsylvania to Buffalo to find work during the depression. His mother and older brother followed once a job was found. There Ken was born on December 12th, 1932. 

When Ken was four years old his father bought a farm 25 miles east of Buffalo near the small town of Corfu. He believed boys should be raised on a farm. Ken never loved working on the farm. It was not large enough to support the family, and his father did not quit his job. He commuted to Buffalo each day for the night shift. Ken only saw him on weekends and felt the loss. 

When Ken’s older brother graduated from the country school, he was required to take additional high school courses before being admitted to college. Ken’s parents decided Ken needed a more rigorous school and as a small boy for his age, he began a 25-mile commute to 8th grade in PS63 in Buffalo on a public bus. He continued commuting to Buffalo through his high school years. Connecting on the bus with WWII veterans returning to school was an important part of growing up. 

Ken had become a runner living in the country. It was the only way for him to get to town. Running served him well. He joined the cross-country team as a sophomore in Buffalo’s Bennett High School and through his successes in meets, was designated one of five Buffalo All High (school) runners. He earned a track scholarship to Michigan State College (now Michigan State University). During his years at MSC, the cross-country team won Big 10, IC4A and NCAA championships. 

After graduation he attended Western Seminary in Pittsburgh and there met and became lifelong friends with Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers of Mister Rogers Neighborhood). Ken was ordained in 1957 and took a position as Assistant Pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Latrobe, PA. There he met his future wife, Zoe Ann Burgoon. They were married in 1960 at Harvard Memorial Church, upon her graduation from Radcliffe College. 

Ken enrolled in The University of Chicago doctoral program in pastoral counseling in 1960 while Zoe taught at the University Lab School. When the program ended prematurely, Ken sought a pastorate. He served as Assistant Pastor of Lake Forest Presbyterian Church north of Chicago from 1961 to 1963. Gwyn was born in Lake Forest in 1962. It was there he began a lifelong commitment to enabling the local congregation to take on the role of social pioneer. His commitment to the church’s role in social justice and his writings in the church newsletter, Pensées, got him fired. Before he left Lake Forest, Ken attended a Pastors Leadership Class taught by faculty of the Ecumenical Institute in Chicago. It was a redoing and updating of his theological education and strong support for enabling local congregations to be social pioneers. 

Ken accepted the call as pastor of Covenant Presbyterian Church in a changing neighborhood in Phoenix Arizona. Their second daughter Kristin was born in 1964. Ken and Zoe brought courses taught by the Ecumenical Institute to the community. In 1966 they were invited to join the Institute faculty on Chicago’s West Side where it was developing a model of community renewal and congregational social responsibility. Through 1972 the Barleys, Ken, Zoe, Gwyn and Kristin, were members of the Institute’s family religious order. They lived in Chicago, Malaysia, and Cleveland. Ken and Zoe taught courses across the U.S. and in Malaysia and Singapore.

In 1972, feeling the girls needed a more stable home life, Ken accepted a call to Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church in the Park Hill neighborhood of Denver as one of three associate pastors. When the senior pastor resigned the three created a co-pastorate. Previously white flight threatened to destabilize the Park Hill neighborhood and Montview along with other Park Hill churches held strong. They formed the Park Hill Action Committee (now the Greater Park Hill Community, Inc.), providing services to those in need, supporting the local schools, and actively maintaining the integrity of the community. Ken led Montview’s role in its community engagement. In 1983, church members joined the encirclement that protested the building of nuclear weapons at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant. With a core group of parishioners, Ken also created innovative worship events including the production of Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. 

In 1989 after 17 years at Montview, Ken accepted the call as senior pastor to The First Presbyterian Church in Kalamazoo Michigan. There he initiated a free health clinic for those without the means to pay for primary health care. He also led the church in a partnership with Sokode Bagble, a village in Ghana, providing funds as the congregation there rebuilt their church which had been washed away by floods. Talking with the village chief, Ken raised funds for a tractor to allow the village’s subsistence farmers to enlarge plots and take the produce to market. Learning that the national government would staff and furnish schools if the community built the buildings, the church in Kalamazoo sent funds for concrete and tin roofing to improve the elementary and preschools. 

Ken retired after 10 years in Kalamazoo and returned to Denver in 1999. In 2000, his granddaughter Zoe Elena arrived, whom he baptized. He loved being her Tito (grandfather). In 2003, he officiated for Gwyn and Paul Bousquet’s wedding ceremony. In retirement, he and Zoe traveled the world seeing friends and places everywhere. He loved visiting cathedrals and museums, while taking in symphonies and theater. He loved their annual trips to the Chautauqua Institution in New York. With Zoe’s assistance he self published Selected Sermons in 2019, a compilation of his best sermons throughout his career. Ken died at the age of 93 in the care of The Denver Hospice surrounded by family. Ken and Zoe have selected space in the Montview Columbarium where his ashes are to be interred. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Ken’s name to Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church (www.montview.org) in Denver or to the Chautauqua Institution (www.chq.org) in Chautauqua NY.