BIOGRAPHY

It was often said he wouldn't live to see thirty, but Ouija boards and tea leaves weren't quite so accurate back in the '50s and '60s. And Ken Jasper was always the defiant sort anyway, whiling away his Wonder Years on the elm-lined avenues of Sedgwick Farms in Syracuse, NY. For much of that time his father, David W., was vice president and general counsel of Carrier Corporation, a career that belied a much less conventional upbringing of his own. David often alluded to his having once shaken hands with Al Capone and hosted the crew of the Graf Zeppelin for Sunday dinner, and knowing FDR personally as a consequence of his sister's polio treatments at Warm Springs, Ga.

But rather than follow his father into law, Ken preferred the paths of his grandfathers, both of whom were engineers. (Kenneth H. Osborn, for whom he was named, owned the engineering firm that designed and built many of the most famous college and professional sports arenas in the U.S., including Fenway Park and Yankee Stadium.) In five years at Cornell University ('74, '75), Ken obtained his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering, and for the next twenty years, plied his skills in a number of venues, developing electronic systems for the military, NASA, commercial, security and the trucking industries. In 1995, he retired from engineering to devote himself to raising his three children, building and maintaining his home, and writing in his spare time.

That hardly tells the story, though, for Ken has led an interesting and often charmed life, bits and pieces of which inspire much of his fiction.

He grew up in a household where strange and exotic pets were the norm. Over the years, Ken and his family played host to a dazzling array of wildlife, including a squirrel, a pigeon, a crow, a thieving raven, six vicious ducks, an alligator, a parakeet, a red tail hawk, a deodorized skunk, a boa constrictor, and a magpie. These days, Ken prefers the company of his German shepherd, Moondance.

In the early '60s, his dad and brother built a 300-pound plywood go-cart (known as a Microd) that would become the terror of the neighborhood. For many years, Ken and his brother raced the streets of Sedgwick Farms, drawing the ire of their neighbors and barely evading the police. In a close shave with a Ford station wagon that still evokes chills, Ken totaled the Microd in a head-on with a maple tree one quiet Sunday morning in '66. He still bears the scars.

Almost from the time he could strike a match, Ken had an enduring fascination with fire in general and with fireworks in particular, and over the years earned a degree of renown for both. In high school, already burdened with a reputation as a "firebug," he was among a group of suspects who were grilled relentlessly by the New York Bureau of Investigation in connection with the burning of a church rectory during a homecoming dance, an incident briefly alluded to in his book Voices of Babylon. He still denies any responsibility for the fire, though he acknowledges pulling the alarm (and relishing the moment).

Even before he'd reached his teens, Ken learned how to make gunpowder and labored long hours trying to build rockets, roman candles, and other pyrotechnic devices, with very modest success. Not till his late twenties, though, did he apply his education and experience to the task. Joining an Upstate New York fireworks club, the Catskill Mountains Pyrotechnics Association, Ken obtained a license and began designing and displaying large aerial shells, flags, waterfalls, and fire wheels, a hobby that followed him down to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1983. He rarely dabbles in the fire arts these days, preferring instead to attend the Fourth of July displays in South Carolina, where most fireworks are legal. At this writing, he retains all ten fingers and his eyesight.

Radio was another hobby that earned Ken considerable notoriety in his youth and beyond. In 1968, he built a broadcast-band AM radio transmitter, which he named fondly WLSD. With a few friends, he began performing radio shows for the neighborhood. When kids offered to lend their favorite records, Ken was only too happy to oblige them. Before long, he had acquired a colossal music collection. WLSD also seemed to attract the attention of the local female population, which at the time seemed like a good thing. Ken's first novel, begun while a senior in high school, was inspired by those experiences. From time to time he thinks about taking that manuscript off the shelf and polishing it for publication.

Engineering school and then his career forced him to put his radio days behind him, but not forever. In 1985, weary of the engineering rat race, Ken left IBM and enrolled in the broadcasting school at Gaston Community College in Dallas, North Carolina. Only days later, he was assigned to the noon news report on the college radio station, WSGE. After his first semester, Ken was invited to take on the Saturday night gig at the local AM oldies station, WGNC, and then shortly thereafter was promoted to the FM adult contemporary sister station, WLIT, where he remained until a radical format change in 1988 resulted in a complete change of staff. By then, Ken had seen the radio business and seen enough. He returned to engineering and never looked back, except to chuckle.

These days, Ken lives with his wife, Patty, and their three children in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where he does handyman jobs, brews beer and works on his cars when he's not writing.