Kenneth Allen Hartung

Ken passed away on April 25th, 2023 at the age of 92. By any account, he had a full and accomplished life.

Ken was born on February 11, 1931, in Poughkeepsie, New York. His parents owned and ran a “mom and pop” butcher and grocery store. They were hardworking people who were proud of their German heritage. Neither one of them had a formal education past the 8th grade. Ken was the youngest of their three children. His childhood was not easy for him or for his two older brothers, Ritchie and Fritz, but they had a loving mother who ensured they grew up with good values and a strong moral compass. Ken had pleasant memories of taking care of the two ponies his parents owned to help with the family business and of the annual clam bakes his parents organized. Ken’s youth revolved around the family’s grocery store, where the entire family was required to work. There wasn’t much time for other activities, but Ken did enjoy sports during his formative years. He played high school football, during a time when players played both ways. He was the center on the offense and a linebacker on the defense. He would recount to his children, on more than one occasion, with laughter, about an interception he made in an away game during his senior year that he ran in for a touchdown, but unfortunately, the buses carrying the cheerleaders, band and fans got lost on their way to the game and so there were no friendly faces there to witness his heroics.

After Ken graduated from high school in 1949, the family grocery store was in financial trouble due to stiff competition from new grocery store chains. At a relatively young age, Ken tried his hand at running the store, but it did not survive. He then enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 19 at the beginning of the Korean War, which set the course for his life. During basic training, he had a good aptitude test day, and he and two other recruits were pulled from the larger group for stateside duty. The remaining recruits were part of the first wave of soldiers sent to Korea, and Ken often wondered how many of them made it home alive. After boot camp, Ken was assigned to the Pentagon and was later asked to join the U.S. Army Security Agency, which was the Army’s electronic intelligence branch. He was subsequently posted to the American Embassy in Bonn, West Germany, where he met his wife, Irene, who was a Foreign Service secretary there. They were married in Bonn in 1954 and honeymooned in Berchtesgaden. Ken later earned an appointment as a Foreign Service officer, although he had no college degree, and he had a distinguished career in the Foreign Service. Ken and Irene had an adventurous life together and lived in West Germany, Japan, England, Cambodia, Italy and Austria, while raising their three kids, Jean, Fred and Rob. Ken also served as the Director of the Sinai Field Mission in the Sinai Peninsula, where he hosted the then President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, after the Camp David Accords were signed. Ken retired from the U.S. State Department in 1980, after 30 years of service to the U.S. government as a soldier and a diplomat.

Over the next 30 years, Ken continued to work as a retiree in various roles at the State Department and for an international organization in Rome that supported and monitored the particulars of the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. In 2013, Ken and Irene moved from their longtime home in Hollin Hills in Alexandria to Greenspring Senior Living in Springfield, Virginia.

Ken’s interests were varied throughout his life. He would go deep sea fishing when he and Irene visited her sister and brother-in-law in San Diego. When Fred and Rob were older, they joined him. And there were the enjoyable fishing trips the family took on the Rappahannock River when the shad were running. He also enjoyed yard work and gardening at their wooded home in Hollin Hills. But Ken’s hobby was definitely the stock market. He loved to research companies and plan his investments accordingly. Ken loved to laugh, and he especially enjoyed a good joke. He frequently showed a broad smile in the last few months of his life.

Ken lost Irene in 2020 after 66 years of a beautiful marriage. Ken passed away from Alzheimer’s Disease in 2023. And although the disease cruelly robbed him of many of his memories, he always recognized his children, and he maintained a sweet disposition until the day he passed. He was a loving husband, a caring and proud father and an all-around good guy. He is dearly missed.

Ken’s funeral service will be on September 12th, 2024 at 3:00 at the Ft. Myer Old Post Chapel, followed by placement of his urn in the Arlington National Cemetery columbarium. Access to the chapel is through Ft Myer’s Hatfield Gate, and visitors are required to show government-issued ID with a photo. The chapel recommends guests arrive at the gate by 2:00 and requests they enter the chapel by 2:15. His family suggests that those who wish to contribute to a charity in Ken’s memory choose the BrightFocus Foundation’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research program or the Alzheimer’s Association.