Ken Vetters was born on September 28, 1924, in a farmhouse south of Greenfield, Indiana. He grew up barefoot on the farm, working the fields with horses. In 1945 he joined the Army. The Japanese surrendered while he was in basic training. Subsequently he was sent to Korea where he served as a construction foreman in the 13th Battalion of Engineers in the 7th Infantry Division, building Quonset huts for Army bases.
While in basic training, Ken made a commitment to take his Christian faith seriously. After his tour of duty in the Army, he used his G.I. Bill benefits to enroll in Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky. Although he greatly enjoyed farming, he answered God’s call to the ministry. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree from Asbury in 1951.
During his college years, Ken met his future wife when they were paired together on an evangelistic home visitation program. They sang their first (and last) duet together while visiting an elderly lady who wanted to hear “Victory in Jesus.” Ken married Mary Elizabeth Davis on March 17, 1951, in Detroit, Michigan. They were faithfully married for 63 years.
After college, Ken entered seminary. He attended Asbury Seminary and Bonebreak Seminary (now United Theological Seminary) in Dayton, Ohio, before receiving his theological degree from Garrett Biblical Institute in Evanston, Illinois, in 1955. While attending graduate school, he served as a pastor at Metamora, Robinson Chapel, Hillsboro, and Waynetown Methodist churches in Indiana.
Ken and Mary served as missionaries under the Methodist Board of Missions from 1956 to 1963. They worked and taught at the Methodist English School in Palembang, on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. They also helped prepare young Indonesians to lead local churches and conducted church planting activities.
While in Indonesia, Ken and Mary started their family. Cynthia Djuita (“Sweetheart”) Vetters was born in 1958. Their son Jonathan was stillborn in 1962 and he is buried in Indonesia. They returned to the United States in 1963 to serve the Bicknell, Indiana, Methodist Church. Their sons Charles, Timothy, and Daniel were born at Good Samaritan Hospital in nearby Vincennes, Indiana, in 1964, 1965, and 1968.
Ken’s ministry thrived at Bicknell, where he served seven years. The family’s next appointment was to the Brookville United Methodist Church in Brookville, Indiana, in 1970. In 1974 the family moved to Avon, Indiana, where Ken pastored both Bartlett Chapel and Shiloh United Methodist Churches. After 13 years, he and Mary moved to serve East Columbus UMC for four years until his retirement in 1991. Hundreds of people turned out for Ken’s retirement celebration, a testimony to all the lives he had touched over the years.
Ken retired to the farm on which he grew up. He built a snug retirement home that is often filled with the laughter of their eleven grandchildren. He worked “part-time” as a minister of visitation at Trinity Park UMC in Greenfield for several years, and stayed busy leading Bible studies and tackling projects around his country home.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years; children, Cynthia (John) Lanning, Charles (Debi) Vetters, Timothy (Diane) Vetters, and Daniel (Jill) Vetters; and eleven surviving grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a son, Jonathan; and his sister, Mildred Applegate.
Friends may call Sunday, May 18, 2014 from 2 to 5 p.m. at Trinity Park UMC, 207 W. Park Ave., Greenfield, IN. Funeral services will be Monday, May 19 at 11 a.m. at Trinity Park, with burial to follow at Mt. Lebanon UMC Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to Trinity Park UMC Faith Promise Giving “Missions.”
The family wishes to express sincere appreciation to the caregivers of Hancock Regional Hospice.