Ken Knighton Memorial

  • Fly Geyser - Ken Knighton Memorial

    Ken Knighton was our dad. Here, we memorialize him. This will be his digital resting place.

Ken Knighton with mustache and side burns in the mid-1970's Kenneth H. Knighton, age 73, died Feb. 25, 2023 of Parkinson’s disease. He was born Aug. 18, 1949 in Bountiful, UT to George Robert Knighton and Edith Eleanor Hageman.


Ken married Jeanette, Aug. 20, 1971 and divorced in 1991. Ken married Susan in 1995 and divorced in 1998. Ken and Donna married in 2009 in Gilbert, AZ. Donna died May 2, 2017 in Goshen, UT.


Ken retired from Raytheon Technologies. His career spanned six decades starting on his family’s small West Bountiful, UT farm, then he went out to work at the local nursery.


Upon graduating from Viewmont High School in 1967 his emphasis shifted almost entirely to auto mechanics. He worked at the old service station in the Salt Lake City Avenues until in 1968 when he was called to Australia to serve a two year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


After his mission, Ken returned to the service station in the Avenues and worked there until he and Jeanette moved to Logan, UT in 1974. Ken began work in Cache Valley assembling tractors and farm equipment. After being laid off from that job he eventually worked his way into inventory and stock control, then purchasing at several different companies located in Davis and Weber counties.


In 1985, Ken graduated from Weber State College with a business administration degree. Ken soon took a job with Bourns and moved the family back to Cache Valley until 1985 when he began his aerospace career with Hercules Bacchus Works. At Hercules, Ken fine-tuned his skill for negotiation and administration of multi-million dollar sub-contracts for rocket motor components and explosives mixing equipment. Ken left Hercules, then Alliant Techsystems, in 1996 to pursue his greatest passion, building houses as a General Contractor.


Kenneth Knighton Construction was a short-lived enterprise that ended after two short years. Unemployed and heartbroken, Ken wound his way from night watchman and odd security jobs back into supply chain with aerospace and defense contractor, Raytheon Technologies, located in Tucson, AZ.
At Raytheon, Ken fought off prostate cancer. During his radiation therapy, Donna Mitchell, a co-worker, took an interest in Ken’s condition having battled cancer herself, and the rest is history.


Ken is survived by sons, Adam S. Knighton, Lucas S. Knighton, Nathan S. Knighton, and daughter, Jana Diamond. Ken’s grandchildren total eleven.


Surviving brothers, Byron T. Knighton, M. Dean Knighton, George Albert Knighton, and sister, Edith K. Hoskin.


Step-sons, Harlan Mitchell, Chad Mitchell and Logan Mitchell.


Ken was preceded in death by wife, Donna Marie Rasmussen Knighton; daughter, Beth Knighton; Brothers, Robert T. Knighton, Roger T. Knighton, and sister, Jennie K. Beynon.


Ken’s body was gifted to Research for Life.


A small ceremony to spread Ken’s ashes somewhere east of Logan, UT will be conducted later in 2023.


Ken Knighton Obituary, updated Apr. 11, 2023