Kenney Wallace Hamm

Kenney Wallace Hamm, 75, of Richmond, formerly of Jessamine County, died Tuesday, August 27 at Bluegrass Hospice Care at the University of Kentucky. He was born on January 17, 1949, in Lexington, Ky. to the late Russell and Velma (Teater) Hamm of Jessamine County.

Kenney attended the University of Kentucky and earned a Bachelor and Master of Science in Accounting prior to commissioning as an officer in the U.S. Air Force.

He married Linda Phelps on November 3, 1973, and had three children, Michael Travis, Jared Randall, and Lauren Elaine Hamm.

He joined the Air Force Audit Agency as a Second Lieutenant in July 1973 and held assignments at Wright-Patterson and Newark AFBs, Ohio; Incirlik AB, Turkey; and Hellenikon AB, Greece. After separating from active duty in 1979, he returned to the AFAA as a civilian auditor at the Wright-Patterson Area Audit Office, where he served as audit manager, supervisory auditor, and program manager in the Directorate of Acquisition and Logistics Systems and the AFAA Special Projects Division. He supervised audit reviews of some of the Air Force’s most complex, challenging and visible weapons systems acquisitions, including the Space-Based Infrared System, Airborne Laser, C-17, F/A-22, and Global Hawk. He received numerous awards and accolades during his career, including a nomination for Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award.

Kenney continued his service in the Air Force Reserve concurrently to his Civilian career, retiring at the rank of Colonel in June 2001. His duties included serving as an Air Force Academy Liaison Officer and Liaison Officer Commander for the Southern Ohio region.

If you’ve read this far, congratulations! It’s OK, very little of that made any sense to us either. Now for the good stuff: in retirement, he enjoyed spending time with his kids and grandkids, golfing, toilet humor, cooking bacon for himself and pancakes for the kids, taking loooong Sunday drives even when the rest of us wanted to watch TV, golfing, watching UK sports but only when he DVR’d the games so he could skip the commercials, pretending to watch golf but actually napping, reading, listening to operas, making us watch Youtube videos of operas, classic cars, classic comic books, repeating old stories we’ve heard 14 times, golfing, and going back to the grocery store because he forgot the milk.

Kenney is survived by his wife, Linda; 2 sons and their spouses, Michael and Kelly Hamm of Kettering, Ohio; and Jared and Karin Hamm of Richmond; a daughter and spouse, Lauren and Nicholas Wilson of Augusta, Georgia; and 5 grandchildren, Matthias and Miles Hamm, Lila Hamm, and Hank and Marley Wilson.

A visitation will be held Tuesday, September 3 from 4pm-8pm at Hager & Cundiff Funeral Home in Nicholasville. A graveside service will be held Wednesday, September 4 at 11am at Camp Nelson National Cemetery in Jessamine County. Those wishing to attend the service at Camp Nelson are asked to meet at the funeral home at 10:30AM to join the funeral procession to Camp Nelson National Cemetery.

Honoring Kenney as pallbearers will be Jared Hamm, Michael Hamm, Nicholas Wilson, Carson Quillin, Shawn Morman and Matthias Hamm.

This obituary was lovingly submitted by the family. The Hager and Cundiff Funeral Home would like to extend their deepest sympathy to the Hamm family and friends. All arrangements are under the direction of Hager and Cundiff Funeral Home.

The family requests donations to The American Legion Post 63 Honor Guard. Donations can be mailed to PO Box 581, Nicholasville, KY 40340.