Kenneth R. Wombacher, 76

With much sadness, we announce the passing of Kenneth Richard Wombacher, age 76, our beloved husband, father, and papa. Ken passed peacefully on August 18, 2024, surrounded by his loving family.

Ken was born on Christmas Day, 1947, in Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to parents Alma C. Linden and Joseph R. Wombacher. He grew up with twin siblings, younger brother Bob and sister Joanne and numerous cousins.

In 1965 Ken’s father, Joe, became the first mayor of Bonners Ferry when the community’s status changed from a village to a city. Ken loved the small-town life and close-knit community of Bonners Ferry and always considered it “home” no matter where he was. Ken graduated from Bonners Ferry High School in 1966 and was salutatorian of his class. He played football and basketball for the Badgers and Babe Ruth and American Legion Baseball in the summers. His basketball teams went to multiple state tournaments and the American Legion team won the state title in 1966. As a feared left-handed pitcher, he also was invited to MLB scouting sessions.

Ken went to the University of Idaho where he joined the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity and played intramural sports and fast-pitch softball. In 1970, he graduated cum laude with a degree in economics. After college, he went to work for the Equitable Life Insurance Company. First training in Denver, he then moved to New Jersey and worked at the company headquarters in New York City for six years.

On June 2, 1973, Ken married his hometown sweetheart, Debbie Smith, and they continued to live in New Jersey. They enjoyed exploring and traveling around the East Coast and trips to the Jersey shore. Throughout their marriage they had many adventures to the beaches, the mountains and small towns of their travels, going on cruises with friends, and taking many family vacations to Idaho. In 1976, Ken and Debbie moved to California where Ken became manager of the Equitable’s West Coast Treasury operations in San Francisco. Later, Ken became vice president at Crocker Bank, then Wells Fargo Bank. While working in San Francisco he earned an MBA from Golden Gate University. Wanting to work closer to home, he began a new career with Allstate Insurance and had his own agency in Alamo, Calif., for 25 years. 

Ken and Debbie raised their children, Joe and Kelly in Pleasant Hill, Calif. Ken was a very proud and dedicated father who loved coaching many of his children’s baseball teams and watching them play in other sports as well. Always an adoring Papa to his grandchildren Brandon, Dylan and Lucas, he loved inventing silly games to play, going to the beach and watching fun movies at home with lots of popcorn. Any time spent with his children and grandchildren was special. After retirement in 2012 he couldn’t wait to spend more time at The Ranch, a longtime family property in Idaho he helped manage. It was here he could really relax, enjoy the outdoors and oversee the farming and spruce tree operations.

Ken was a natural athlete and continually played sports throughout his life, and even got his certification for scuba diving. He was an avid college and pro sports fan, and his favorite teams were the Oakland A’s and Raiders. When his son Joe was born he started “Joey’s Football Pool” for family and friends and 46 years later it’s still going strong.

Ken enjoyed many years of coaching in the Pleasant Hill Baseball Association, sponsored many teams, and served as a league commissioner. Also a longtime member of the Pleasant Hill Lions Club, he worked tirelessly on many community events and organized the annual crab feed. He enjoyed coffee every morning at the local Bistro, hosted a monthly poker group for many years and looked forward to his Wednesday men’s coffee group.

Always a supportive friend, he knew how to make others feel important and considered himself very lucky to have close friends from each chapter of his life. Ken had a great sense of humor and liked to joke around and tell stories with friends and family. He was a thoughtful, kind, and generous man, who loved his friends but his family even more. We will always miss this great guy, and feel grateful for the time we shared with him. We will celebrate and cherish the laughter, the fun, the joy, the happiness, the inside jokes, the music he loved like Elvis and Sinatra, the classic movies he made us watch, the card tricks he practiced on us, trips to Bonners and the Ranch. Our lives are so much better because of him. We love you my dear husband, dad, and papa!

Those who remain to lovingly remember Ken are his devoted wife, Debbie of 51 years; children, Kelly Wombacher and Joe Wombacher of Pleasant Hill; grandsons, Brandon, Dylan and Lucas of Reno, Nev.;  brother, Robert Wombacher (wife Blanca) of Highlands Ranch, Colo.; brother-in-law, Tom Young, of Denver, Colo.;  brother-in-law, Hollie Smith (wife Chris) of Spokane, Wash.; sisters-in-law, Kelly Wilson (husband Tim) and Lisa Shelton of Bonners Ferry, Idaho; and many nieces and nephews.

Ken was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Joanne Wombacher Young.

There will be a tribute for Ken in Bonners Ferry in late spring/early summer of next year with details to be announced at a later date.