Captain James “Ken” Rosemond, 60, of Morehead City, passed away Monday, May 27, 2019, at Carteret Health Care. His life will be celebrated this Sunday, June 2, 2019, at 1:30 p.m. at Off the Hook in Morehead City. Please join us in wishing the Captain fair winds and following seas.
Captain James “Ken” Rosemond was the very embodiment of a storyteller. He told stories to his children, to the customers on his dive boat Tortuga, to friends old and newly met. When he told a story, his whole person lit up, every tale he wove became an epic.
His own life story was that of a curious man with an adventurer’s soul. Born in Wilmington, North Carolina, in August 1958, to parents Barbara Ann Ballenger and Kenneth Walker Rosemond, Ken was raised between the piedmonts of North Carolina and Georgia alongside his younger brother Kevin. Ken spent his formative years in both Durham and Athens following his father’s career coaching college basketball, a sport that Ken loved as both an athlete and a spectator.
After graduating from Jordan High School in 1976 he became a University of Richmond Spider, following in his father’s footsteps as a college basketball player. Topping 6’9” at the height of his height Ken was a shoo-in for the sport (he would add here that he could also jump like a deer). It was during this time that he had a truly life changing experience, a story that he would tell for the rest of his life.
On a college basketball trip to the Bahamas Ken had the opportunity to snorkel on a coral reef for the first time, and he fell deeply in love. The novelty of seeing below the waves, of glimpsing another world, was enchanting and something he could never get enough of. After college Ken put his natural affinity for both socializing and storytelling to good work and went into sales, first door to door computer sales and later the ultra-hip Ultra Suede.
He met and married his first wife, Cathy Waldron, with whom he had three children, Elena, Reid, and Ryan. They moved from Durham to Florida in pursuit of the ultra-suede dream, a move that allowed Ken to stretch his legs as a boatman and a mariner. Many of those Florida years were spent on the ocean, exploring small islands made of mangroves, snorkeling on beautiful coral reefs, and (his favorite) getting hot dogs from the Coney Island hot dog boat.
In 1996, a change of careers (and family arrangements) brought Ken back to Durham where he met his second wife, Janet Pigeon, and began selling “configuration management” (a term that he could never adequately define to his children). Throwing caution to the wind and trusting that their love would serve as the necessary foundation, Janet and Ken combined their six children into a big happy, Brady Bunch style blended family, Lauren, Elena, Daniel, Reid, Ryan, and Genevieve, six kids within six years of age. The Pigiemonds settled into Durham for a life that included plenty of growing pains, more laughter than you can measure, and a lot of parental eye rolling.
After getting certified to SCUBA dive with Elena, Ken found his next adventure. With his friend Scotty Pearce he discovered the beauty and excitement of diving in the North Carolina waters, hunting flounder, exploring shipwrecks, and beholding the glory of an entire world just out of sight, deeper than anything he had encountered while snorkeling and free diving. In 2008, he officially became Captain James and christened his six-pack dive boat Tortuga.
Based in his beloved Morehead City, Ken spent the last 11 years taking his customers and friends (the terms were rarely mutually exclusive) out on the sea, exploring wrecks, ledges, and favorite spots under the ocean’s surface. Ken was his happiest self on the water. Never seasick a day in his life, he found peace, challenge, and joy in the ocean.
Ken is loved and cherished in memory by his wife, Janet; his children and their families, Elena and Dan, Lauren and Bradley, Reid and Jourdi, Daniel and Jenni, Genevieve and Naoise, Ryan and Erin; his brother, Kevin and his wife Lori, and their children Charlie and Anna; his beloved grandchildren, Iris and Everett; a large and loving extended family; and a bevy of close friends. Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www. mundenfuneralhome.net Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home and Crematory in Morehead City, NC.
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