United Church of Christ
Spotlight
Jim and Kitty Mac Kenzie
Jim Refuses to Stop Skiing
and Giving Back
At 77 Jim Mac Kenzie still skis three times a year. The next oldest member of the Santa Barbara Ski Club is a decade and a half younger but Mac Kenzie has no plan to retire. “I’d love to get to 80 when they’ll let me ski at Mammoth for nothing,” he laughs. “Right now I ski for half price.” Mac Kenzie fell in love with skiing in 1954 in Colorado. The affair has never lapsed.
Also in 1954 Mac Kenzie earned a degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Maryland and married a tall blond girl named Kitty, Kathleen really, who was the daughter of a professor. That affair has never lapsed either. Mac Kenzie was offered a solid job upon graduation, designing bridges for the State of Ohio, but his youthful spirit nixed a career at the Columbus drafting table and detoured the young couple to a lifelong world-wide adventure.
Through ROTC Mac Kenzie was offered a chance to volunteer for an unnamed construction project somewhere in the West. Ignoring all military wisdom about the folly of volunteering, Mac Kenzie raised his hand. The project was construction of the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and Mac Kenzie found himself in heaven. Besides skiing he was responsible for managing construction of the academy’s community center, a $10 million job. The adrenaline was pumping for a Second Lieutenant not yet 25. “I wasn’t in the Air Force, I was in construction,” he grins now.
Over the next 26 years Mac Kenzie led Air Force design and construction teams in Alaska, Southern California, Viet Nam, Maine and Europe. He taught two stints at the Civil Engineering School of the Air Force Institute of Technology where he served as Dean and was promoted to full Colonel. He also helped raise a son and daughter.
Retirement from the service in 1980 led to 12 years on the design and construction of operational facilities for the highly classified B-2 bomber built by Northrop Grumman. Four years after his final retirement in 1995 the Mac Kenzies moved from congested Orange County to Lompoc. After less than a year here Jim Mac Kenzie demonstrated once again his inquisitive spirit and his commitment to what he calls “giving back.” He agreed to serve on the board of the Mission Hills Community Services District. “Giving back is important. I’ve had opportunities. It’s a way of showing your appreciation for what’s been done for you,” he says simply.
And the church? A longtime Presbyterian, Mac Kenzie found that in Orange County he felt more at home at the United Church of Christ. Moving here, Valley of the Flowers was a logical choice. “I just felt comfortable here. The church is open and caring. For our size it does a lot of good in the community and worldwide.” At Valley of the Flowers things are bubbling, akin to the magnetic attraction of skiing. “It’s the sense of freedom and movement,” Mac Kenzie says of his half century on the mountainsides. “You can ski the same slope over and over but the conditions change. It’s never the same.”
Jim Mac Kenzie has helicoptered to the summits of Austria to ski virgin slopes. He has glided amidst the sparkle of floating ice crystals at Steamboat Springs. “They looked like diamonds in the air,” Mac Kenzie says reflecting fondly back on that day in Colorado. His birth certificate may read “senior citizen” but his skis and poles are those of a man romping through his prime.
Valley of the Flowers
church council leaders
Masako and Yoshiro Arimitsu.
In addition to their leadership they regularly bless us with their gormet cooking and beautiful garden bouquets.
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Pastor: Chuck Arnold
Organist: Ruth Lee
Adult Classes: 8:45 am
Sunday Service: 10:00 am
Modern Gospel Music Rally
First Saturdays: 7:00 pm
LMA 2011-2012 Season
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