Kenneth Eugene Hindman, 89, died December 4, 2021, at home under the care of Arbor Hospice. He died surrounded by his loving family after experiencing increasing congestive heart failure in his final years.

Ken was born on May 19, 1932, in Belvidere, Illinois to Herbert Hindman and Marlene (Dykeman) Hindman. He graduated from Belvidere High School in 1950. He attended Park College, where he majored in political science, built lifelong friendships, and excelled at soccer. Ken was married to Audrey Ann Smith on August 21, 1954 in Belvidere, Illinois at the First Presbyterian Church of Belvidere. Ken attended McCormick Seminary, then located in Lincoln Park, Illinois, where he completed his Master’s of Divinity Degree. They had their first daughter, Carol, in 1956 while in seminary. After completing seminary in 1957, they moved to Macon, Missouri, and served their first church, First Presbyterian. Cathy was born in 1958 and Mark in 1960. In 1960, Ken and Audrey moved their family to Crestwood, Missouri to serve their second church, Southminster Presbyterian Church, for the next nine years. In 1969, they moved to Dubuque, Iowa where Ken was the senior minister at Westminster Presbyterian Church for the next 25 years.

Ken was a patient and kind person. Drawing on his strong faith, Ken worked to build community in all the places he lived and worked. He was known for his teaching, mentoring, counseling, and preaching in each of the communities they lived in. His mentees in pastoral ministry were some of his most beloved relationships. He was especially proud of the Sunday education program he and others developed at Westminster where teenagers and adults gathered to study a broad range of social, religious, and literary topics after services each Sunday. During his very active retirement, he chose a poet to study deeply each year and then taught engaging courses about these poets in the PLATO program through the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and Audrey were deeply involved as hospice volunteers for 20 years. He was committed to a life of service and had a special ability to be truly present for other people and hold space with people in need.

Ken and Audrey were supportive and loving parents, grandparents and great-grandparents. They were given the names Nunu and Nana by their first grandchild and they avidly followed the adventures of their extended family. One of Ken’s fondest activities was taking a single family member or friend out in a rowboat on a Minnesota lake for an early morning of fishing. We will remember these times in the boat as times for some of our most meaningful conversations with him. He also played a mean game of Scrabble.

Ken and Audrey moved to Hyde Park, Illinois in 1994 for his role as The Mohr Professor of Pastoral Ministry at McCormick Theological Seminary. In 1997 they moved to Lake Forest, Illinois to for Ken to serve three years as Interim Senior Pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest and then to Wanakee, Wisconsin to settle into their nearly 20 years of retirement in the Madison, Wisconsin area. They made many friends at Westshire Village at the Lake in Wanakee, Coventry Village in Madison, and Attic Angel Community in Madison and were very involved in Covenant Presbyterian Church. In December 2019, they moved to the Balfour Retirement Community to be near their daughter Cathy and her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They proudly celebrated 67 years of married life together in August 2021.

Ken is survived by their three children, Carol Tippe and Lee of Iowa City, Iowa, Cathy Reischl and Tom of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Mark Hindman and Tracy of Lake Bluff, Illinois. Audrey and Ken have six grandchildren, Allison Tippe of Iowa City, Laurel Tippe of Mequon, Wisconsin, Hannah Reischl and Eli Scheele of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Charlie Reischl of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Emma Hindman of Oak Park, Illinois, and Sarah Hindman of Chicago, Illinois. They have one great granddaughter, Carter Sage Tippe Moore of Iowa City, Iowa.

Ken’s wife Audrey died on November 29, 2021, just six days before his own death. They had expressed the hope that they might “go together” to family and friends. He was also preceded in death by his father and mother and by his brother Tommy who died in 1944.

The memorial service for Ken and Audrey Hindman will be taking place at Covenant Presbyterian Church

326 South Segoe Road, Madison, WI 53705 on Saturday, May 28th, 2022, starting at 1pm. For those unable to attend in person, please visit the livestream HERE.

Instead of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be made to Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County Refugee Services to support Afghan refugee resettlement programs or to a fund of their choice.