By Joseph Slacian
jslacian@thepaperofwabash.com
WABASH COUNTY, Ind. – A Wabash County man was recently named a Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest award a Hoosier citizen can receive.
The man, Ken Perkins, received the honor on Dec. 19 during a reception prior to the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Holiday Pops Concert at the Honeywell Center.
“I was totally surprised,” Perkins told The Paper of Wabash County. “I was honored and humbled. Some really neat people have gotten that award before me, so I felt very pleased to be a part of that group.”
Perkins said he nearly didn’t attend the concert.
“I just retired in September from First Farmers Bank and Trust after 14 years with them,” he said. “They host the concert and have a big reception beforehand. They asked me to come and do the invocation.”
However, Perkins had just returned from a two-week mission trip to Southeast Asia.
“I got home and the second day I was home I started feeling a little bad,” he said. “I started getting a chest flu from 20-some hours on a plane with 300 of my best buddies.
“I almost didn’t go, but my wife said, ‘Oh, no, you really have to go.’ I had no clue what they were doing. I was very surprised.”
Former State Rep. Bill Ruppel presented Perkins with the award.
Perkins retired from First Farmers Bank and Trust in September, where he served as Senior Business Development and Sales Training Officer. At First Farmers, he worked with livestock and grain clients, agricultural businesses and bioenergy customers.
Prior to that, he worked for 24 years at ADM/Moorman Manufacturing Co. in various capacities.
He has a personal interest in helping aquaculture clients, as he raises multiple species of fish on his Wabash County farm.
Perkins has accompanied two Indiana lieutenant governors – Becky Skillman and Sue Ellspermann – on separate trade missions to Japan, South Korea and Japan as part of an ag advisory board. He also has helped to groups from Purdue University of trips to Southeast Asia to study agriculture.
Perkins also takes several trips to Southeast Asia annually where he helps teach natives to the area about raising pigs and fish and how to raise corn and soybeans.
An Indiana University graduate, Perkins and his wife, Beth, have three children and six grandchildren.
The Sagamore of the Wabash award is a personal tribute usually given to those who have rendered a distinguished service to the state or to the governor. Among those who have received Sagamores have been astronauts, presidents, politicians, ambassadors, artists, musicians and ordinary citizens who have greatly contributed to Hoosier heritage.