Ken Jernberg, teacher who helped struggling Spokane youth, dies at 68

Ken Jernberg, a teacher who founded the school section of the Crosswalk Teen Shelter, died Monday. He was 68.

Jernberg died at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center due to difficulties from leukemia. He was diagnosed on July 8. He was surrounded by family and loved ones.

Those who knew Jernberg best describe him as a dedicated and compassionate servant to the young adults he worked with for the past 40 years. In 1986, he started working at Crosswalk, and began helping dozens of young adults every year obtain their high school diploma or GED.

Kent Hoffman worked alongside Jernberg for 20 years and said he was one of the most unfaltering public servants he’s ever met.

“He was unbelievably unique in his commitment and his capacity to meet the lives of these kids exactly where they’re at,” he said. “He didn’t need them to be somebody else. He did not request that they change. He didn’t have judgment.”

Jernberg put in many more hours than the three-day workweek for which he was paid, said his daughter, Karyna Hamilton. His dedication to helping his students resulted in more than a hundred phone calls when word of his passing spread, she said.

“He said to me in the last bit of time that we’ve been doing this, that he’s just always wanted to make people who felt small, big,” she said. “He changed so many people’s lives. One of his students called today and said he’s alive because of my dad.”

Cathy Adams, a former student of Jernberg’s, described him as one of the most influential people in her life. She said he had a direct impact on her decision to pursue work in social services.

“He shaped me into a person that I never would have thought I could have been,” said Adams, who attended Crosswalk for five years from the ages of 13 to 18.

Jernberg was born in Vanport, Oregon, and grew up in Sunnyside, Washington. He lived in Spokane for most of his adult life, where he met and married his now ex-wife Leslie Jernberg in 1982. They divorced in 2008.

He had one child and two grandchildren.

A March for Ken memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Canada Island in Riverfront Park, where Crosswalk holds its graduation ceremony. A celebration of Jernberg’s life will take place sometime in September. Hamilton said Jernberg’s ashes will be spread in the woods near Lake Roosevelt, where he built a cabin.