Please join your prayers for the family of Steward of Saint Peter, Kenneth D. (Ken) Greiner. Ken passed away on February 19th during one of many sibling reunion gatherings.
Ken’s family shared wonderful memories of both their Dad and Mom Leitner:
My memory of my very first phone call with Ken is clear! He and Leitner had not even become Stewards of St. Peter yet and they signed up to join us on one of our early Papal Foundation Mission Trips to El Salvador in 2006. Always ready for an adventure, Ken and Leitner also joined one of our Mission Trips to Our Lady of Guadalupe and Girlstown/Chalco, Mexico in 2007!
On our bus rides, whether it was to the Mission sites of Mexico or El Salvador, to the Vatican or to the home of the Papal Nuncio to the United States, Leitner could be seen making her famous homemade rosaries out of string. She made thousands of these and people are wearing them and praying them to this day. She tried to teach me how to make one, (unsuccessful on my part!). But I am so grateful that, to this day, I have my rosary made by Leitner, with Ken, lovingly by her side.
That broad smile, seen above, could always be seen on both Leitner and Ken!
We lost a great man, our patriarch K.D. “Ken” Greiner, who passed away on February 19th while in Key West, FL during one of many sibling reunion gatherings, leaving a legacy of faith in God, devotion to family and generosity to those in need.
Dad was born August 19, 1938, the oldest of eight children of Ken and Billie Greiner and great-grandson of Peter Paul Greiner who made the land run in 1889. Raised in Stillwater, his first memories were of wartime scarcity. Later, in his teens, Dad’s father became DA of Payne County, hauling Dad along to the occasional crime scene. Those experiences formed a character of hard work and self-reliance, but also of compassion for others who’ve made mistakes. Dad was active in high school and, despite legs of different lengths (a result of childhood polio), was an all-state cross country runner and state runner up in the mile run (in those days every high school competed in one division).
After graduating from Oklahoma State, Dad attended the Harvard Business School. Back from Boston for Christmas break of his first year, he reconnected with a few college friends, including his favorite “coffee friend”, Leitner Jarrell, whom during that break he escorted to a Christmas Eve dance. It must have gone well since Dad, with no intention of doing so prior to that night, thought “why not?” and popped the question. When he returned home that evening and told his mother he was engaged, she asked “To whom?!”
Two years into their marriage, Dad and Mom moved their growing family to Pakistan where Dad worked for the U.S. Agency for International Development, making commercial and infrastructure loans.
Dad was an entrepreneur from his childhood – making and selling slingshots, delivering newspapers, and starting (and franchising) a lawn mowing business to name a few. So it was no surprise that, after returning to the U.S. from Pakistan and working in consulting and the energy business for a few years, he and a partner started a skilled nursing company, Bridges Health, which today is an employee owned skilled nursing group collectively caring for and employing thousands of Oklahomans.
From a curiosity about the world piqued by his childhood stamp collection, Dad became a travel fanatic. He and Mom took trips to seemingly the most random places, and even years later could quote (chapter and verse) everything about those trips and the history of the people and places they visited together. That all stopped in 2015 when Mom became ill. Dad, ever the teacher, witnessed to all of us the meaning of self-giving love, caring for Mom at home until she passed away in 2019.
Dad was a devout lifelong Catholic. He was a 40 year daily communicant, a member of The Papal Foundation and the Knights and Dames of the Holy Sepulchre, chairman of Catholic Charities of OKC for many years, and supporter of many other works of the Church including the Stanley Rother Shrine, OKC’s Cristo Rey High School and the OSU Catholic Church and Student Center. He and Mom were long time supporters of Willow Pregnancy Resource Center which last year named their new home for young mothers the “Leitner Greiner Rose Home”.
Dad was also a lifelong OSU Cowboy, active on campus as an undergraduate and sponsoring the student senate bill to create a real, living mascot out of what was then only a two-dimensional Pistol Pete. As an alum he served as chairman of the OSU Foundation, chairman of the OSU Phi Delta Theta Housing Corporation, and was a founding hole-sponsor of Karsten Creek golf course. In addition, he was a supporter of the Greiner Family OSU Cross Country Course which is located on the site of his high school team’s training course.
He is survived by four children, 14 grandchildren and 12 great grandchildren. His family includes daughter Kathy Pierce (Larry) and children Bretton, Wade (Sara), Leigha Liuzza (Stephen), Marianne Smith (Conrad), Julia Price (Tanner) and John Paul; son Don Greiner (Shellie) and children Joseph (Caroline) and Mary Jesse Livernois (Chris); daughter Jenny Burrell (Ray) and children Luke and Max; and daughter Cheryl Gumerson (Ted) and children Leitner, Greiner, Kedon and Jarrell.
He is preceded in death by his wife Leitner and two grandchildren – Simon Greiner and Hope Gumerson – and one great grandchild – Ellis Liuzza. Services will be held at Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church in Oklahoma City, with rosary service on Friday February 23 at 6pm and Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday February 24 at 10am.
Memorials may be made to Willow Pregnancy Support Center, 4701 South Western, OKC 73109. www.smithandkernke.com
A lifelong Oklahoma State Cowboy, the enclosed link of Ken on the occasion of his 50 the Anniversary of Graduation from Oklahoma State University.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfD7ZNW2Zps
Eternal Rest to Leitner and Ken Greiner! And Perpetual Light shine on them. And through the mercy of our loving Father in Heaven, may their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, Amen!