Kenneth Lottis

Surrounded by family and resting peacefully, Kenneth Robin Lottis, age 80, passed away on Wednesday, February 18, 2015 at his home on Mercer Island, Washington.

Ken was born on June 25, 1934 in Salem, Oregon to Walter Albert Lottis and Lucille Lottis (nee Taylor). He is survived by wife Carol Joyce Bauer Lottis; brothers Loren & Marge (Salem), Bill & Sandy (Campbell River, BC) and Harold & Bernice (Salem); children Kent & Carin (Bellevue), Daniel & Myrna (Sunnyvale, CA) and Brian & Annette (Portland, OR); grandchildren Ana Leticia, Gabriel, Ian, Nathanael, Paulina, Timothy and Andrew.

He graduated in 1956 from Northwestern College in Minneapolis, Minnesota where he earned a BA in History and was intensely involved with The Navigators and Young Life. After graduation, Ken worked with the North American Indian Mission (NAIM, formerly Marine Medical Mission) in British Columbia where he reconnected with Carol Bauer, a friend from college. The friendship blossomed into romance and Ken and Carol were married on October 18, 1958 in her hometown of Winona, Minnesota. They initially settled at NAIM headquarters on Thetis Island, BC where Kent was born.

In 1960, Ken and Carol left NAIM to start a three-year quest to join The Navigators as full-time staff. The first stop was Spokane, Washington, where Ken worked as a clerk at a Titan missile silo construction site and ministered with his friend Denny Repko to servicemen at Fairchild Air Force Base. A year later, the family moved to DeKalb, Illinois. There Ken worked with students at the University of Illinois and Daniel was born. Finally, in 1963, the family moved to Colorado Springs where Ken was brought on board with The Navigators and where Brian was born.

In October of 1964 Ken, Carol and the three boys boarded a ship in New Orleans and sailed for Brazil. Thus started a 22-year adventure with Jim and Marge Petersen. In Brazil they became pioneers in cross-cultural missions, breaking away from traditional approaches and investing heavily in personal relationships. They spent most of those years in the city of Curitiba, where they developed a rich network of deep friendships.

Ken and Carol left Brazil in 1987 and settled on Mercer Island, where Ken worked with students at the University of Washington and mentored ministry leaders across the United States, Canada and Brazil. They became active at Evergreen Covenant Church (formerly Mercer Island Covenant Church). A gifted and prolific letter writer, Ken published a book in 2010 about his experiences working in Brazil. The book, titled “Will This Rock In Rio?” has become popular in mission training programs.

Friends and family from all over the world remember Ken as a man of quiet and powerful depth. A master of the lost art of listening to people’s hearts, Ken would often respond to conversations with letters or emails in which he shared his wisdom with tender and gracious eloquence.

The family plans to lay Ken to rest alongside his grandfather Albert Lottis (father to Walter) at Homestead Cemetery in Aberdeen, Idaho.