THE HARDEST, GREATEST THING
“I had just turned 60… I needed to make
a change.”
At the time, Ken, his wife, and their
children Heath and Sarah lived in
Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, and he
was working from his home and commuting
to Intarome’s plant in New Jersey. Life
and work were busy, and Ken relished
staying active. He funneled his energy
focus into high-intensity sports, including
triathlons. He taught indoor cycling (also
called spinning) and was a 3-star spinning
instructor.
“
“
which he immediately accepted, leaving his
post at Florachem. “The attraction for me
was, with ingredients, you’re pretty much
one of many, and you’re all selling on price
and service,” he says. “But, with fragrance,
there’s a technical side to it, and a creative
side, which was really attractive to me. I felt
like that would really allow me to stretch out
and use all of the tools I had.”
“It was wonderful how it all fell into
place,” he says. “It took me about two years
to get my chops, learn the systems, and
learn how to sell a fragrance. But, once it
happened, it happened, and it was a perfect
fit.”
FEATURE
My job performance doubled
or tripled, because… I was
happy! It’s amazing how that
can change your professional
life.
With Heath and Sarah by then grown
and out of the house, Ken and his wife
made the hard decision to divorce. While
everyone was heartbroken, “It just struck
me,” he said. “I knew I didn’t want to
live the rest of my life in that situation. I
needed to make a change.” It wasn’t easy
on anyone, but they came through it, as
families often do. Always an involved
father, Ken loves his children dearly and
bursts with pride when he speaks about
them. Heath, now 30, who looks like his
father’s clone, followed in Ken’s footsteps,
becoming a chemical engineer. He married
Ken with his
Congressman John
Curtis (R-UT-3) during
Fragrance Creators’
2019 Lobby Day
Erin, a friend from high school, and they
live in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sarah,
25, studied at Syracuse University and is
an elementary school art teacher in Fairfax
County, Virginia.
Ken remained in tune with his self-
proclaimed “geeky side,” and during
this time found himself on a message
board chatting with fans about Battlestar
Galactica, a remake of the classic science
fiction TV show. “We would meet up
every night with a group of 30 or so other
nerds and just talk about the show and the
episodes,” he says. “We did fan fiction, role
playing, all sorts of nerdy stuff.” It was
on the message board that he struck up a
friendship with a woman named Virginia
(which also happens to be his mother’s
name), a Virginia native and mother of four
who was 17 years his junior and a member
of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-
Day Saints. The two became good friends,
chatting often about their passions and
lives, and eventually realized there was an
undeniable spark between them.
As the dust settled, Ken moved to
Utah to be with Virginia, and the couple
was married four years ago in a simple
ceremony in Las Vegas. The experience,
though painful, was transformative. “I’ve
been able to become the person I always
knew was in there,” he says. For the first
time, he says he feels free, attributing much
of that to the comfort of his partnership
with Virginia. “She loves me for me,” he
says. “We have this incredible ability to
communicate about anything… I can say
anything to her, and she knows it’s coming
not from a position of trying to demean her,
make her feel bad, but from love.”
Issue 2, 2019 | FRAGRANCENOTES.ORG | 11