Kenneth Engle

Personal Information

Birthplace: Abilene, Kansas

Service Information

Branch of Service: Army Air Corps

Unit: 90th Bomb Group

Theater of Operation: Pacific

Enlisted / Commissioned: Sep 1, 1943

Biography

Kenneth “Ken” E. Engle was born November 9, 1924 in the Newbern community south of Abilene, and died Thursday, Nov. 5, 2009, in Abilene. His parents were Grant and Mabel (Robson) Engle. Ken attended the Knox School (district 44) and then Abilene High School. He was active in Future Farmers of America, 4-H and Debate in high school, and graduated in the class of 1942. He attended Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for one year after high school. He was then drafted into the U.S. Army Air Corps. He went overseas in the fall of 1944 with the Fifth Air Force, 90th Bomb Group, where he served as a tail gunner on the B-24J Liberator bomber and flew missions from New Guinea and the Philippines. After the war he attended and graduated from the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. During the four years of study there he worked as an announcer on radio station WMBI. In 1951 he went to the Philippines as a missionary. He was commended to this work by the Grace and Truth Gospel Chapel of Abilene, and the Woodside Bible Chapel of Chicago in 1950. In 1953 he married Mary Louise “Mary Lou” Leonard, whom he met in Chicago. They were married in Manila, Philippines and served there until 1975.