Jerry Kenneth Dusenbury, 77, was born in Anthony KS on September 1, 1939 and died on April 9, 2017 following a long battle against brain cancer. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Mary (McClintock), son Kenneth Stuart Dusenbury and his wife Wendy (Clark), grandsons Joseph, Jordan and Jacob, his brother Douglas and wife Ann, nephews Scott and Ryan Dusenbury, sister-in-law Lucy Calhoun and her husband Clay, niece Katie (Calhoun) McClure and her husband Adam, many cousins and a host of friends.

In June 2007 Jerry was asked to write something about himself. Here is part of what he said:

I was born in 1939 in Anthony KS, the first of two sons born to an International Harvester dealer and a kindergarten teacher. I graduated from Anthony High school in 1957 where I did everything a boy does in a small Kansas high school, athletics, music, etc. When I was 12, my father bought the ranch - along with a herd of registered Hereford cows - where Mary and I now live - and sold his

business. I attended Oklahoma State University where I majored in history and was a serious benchwarmer on the basketball team. I spent my junior year studying in Tokyo at International Christian University in an only partially successful attempt to go somewhere as different socially and culturally as possible from the environment in which I had been raised (I wanted to go to India) - not because I did not like my "place" but in order to see it in perspective. This led to almost two decades of involvement with Japan and East Asia, thorough graduate studies*, working on the staff of the National Council of YMCA's of Japan [through the World Student Christian Federation and the U.S. Presbyterian church], staffing several Asia-wide conferences and finally as a free-lance translator and English teacher.

We returned to Kansas in 1980 due to my father's illness and I have been caring for cows ever since. Today I manage and continue to work to improve a commercial herd of cross-bred cows and do a modest amount of farming on 3,500 acres. From 1994-2000, Mary and I joined seven other families in central Kansas to form and operate a grassfed beef cooperative. Though the group eventually disbanded, "Tallgrass Beef" lives on under the ownership of TV journalist Bill Kurtis who "liked our story" and purchased our trademark.

Among my concerns I would note the ongoing effort to build a sustainable ranching operation and the strengthening of rural communities and their institutions…[*in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University. He also spent one year at the Harvard Divinity School.]

Jerry cared deeply about the church. He was a long-time elder of the First Presbyterian Church, Freeport KS, served on many Presbytery-wide committees and on the advisory board for the student Christian ministry at Wichita State University.

Celebration of Life will be held 11:00 a.m. Saturday, April 15, 2017 at the Freeport Presbyterian Church. Burial will follow in the Freeport Cemetery.

Visitation with the family will be held 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Friday, April 14, 2017 at Prairie Rose Funeral Home in Anthony.

Memorials in memory of Jerry may be made to the Freeport Presbyterian Church and may be sent in care of the funeral home.

Prairie Rose Funeral Homes, 602 E. Main St., Anthony, KS 67003, is in charge of arrangements.