Obituary of Kenneth W. Minch

Kenneth W. Minch, Sr. 83, an avid hunter, fisherman and trapper, passed away peacefully Tuesday evening, May 18, 2010 at his home on Old Trail Rd. with his loving wife and family by his side. Born in Amsterdam on April 7th 1927, he was the son of the late Warnick K. Minch and Lillian Berry Minch. In his younger years, Ken was a steady hitter and sure-handed second baseman on several Fort Hunter area baseball teams. After graduating from Fultonville High School in 1945, Ken left the family farm in Fort Hunter in order to support his growing family. He worked at various companies, including Bobilin's Coal & Oil, Newkirk's Excavating, and Andersen Instrument, but spent most of his working career as a groundskeeper, machine operator and assembler at the General Electric Turbine Works in Schenectady. Ken was passionate about the outdoors, spending the majority of his free time in the woods, fields and waterways of upstate New York. He especially loved hunting whitetails and fishing for brook trout in the Montgomery Hollow, Roxbury, Delaware County. It was there that he bagged many buck, fried fresh-caught fish streamside, and passed his love of the outdoors on to the next generation. Later, when illness kept him out of the woods, he insisted on daily updates to learn the details of the day's hunt, while he enjoyed watching the hundreds of wild birds he attracted to his home. He was a former member of both the Tribes Hill and Cherry Valley Fish and Game Clubs, and a former member of the Fort Hunter Volunteer Fire Department. His loving family includes his wife of nearly 33 years, Florence E. Reynolds Minch of Tribes Hill whom he married December 10, 1977, his sons Kenneth W. Minch, Jr. of Tribes Hill, Philip Minch of Vero Beach, FL, Ted Minch of Fultonville and Bryan Minch of Saratoga Springs, his daughters, Cynthia Close of Northville, Patricia Prime of Fonda and Mimi Kosinski of Tribes Hill, his brother Robert Minch of Charlotte, NC, his sisters Edith Noeltner of Glen and Betty Lou Hitchcock of Clinton, TN, a step-son Gary Bailey of Tribes Hill and his step-daughters Charlotte Arnold of St. Petersburg, FL, Shirley Auspelmyer of Amsterdam and Marie Bailey-Brown of Tallahassee, FL. Nineteen grandchildren, fourteen great-grandchildren, and several nieces, nephews and cousins also survive. In addition to his parents, Ken was predeceased by a son Timothy Minch in July of 1994. Services will be at 7:00PM Tonight, May 21, at Betz, Rossi & Bellinger Family Funeral Home, 171 Guy Park Ave., Amsterdam with Pastor Wade Prime, son-in-law, officiating. The family will receive relatives and friends prior to services on this evening from 5:00 to 7:00PM at the funeral home. Contributions in Ken's memory may be made to Community Hospice of Amsterdam, 246 Manny's Corners Rd., Amsterdam, NY 12010, the Ft. Hunter Vol. Fire Dept., PO Box 181, Fort Hunter, NY 12069, or to the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation in care of the funeral home.