Obituary of Kenneth T. Kulberg

Kenneth Theodore Kulberg died peacefully on Friday, April 15, 2022 at the age of 89 at home in Belfast, Maine. Born and raised in Beverly, Massachusetts on January 30, 1933 the son of Evald August and Judith Johanson Kulberg both having immigrated from Sweden. Kenneth is survived by his wife of 44 years, Karen Kesner Kulberg. The couple were married in Chicago, IL on April 15, 1978. Also surviving are three adult children from Kenneth’s previous marriage: Beth Wierzbicki, Steven Kulberg, and Sarah Celiberti and husband Christopher, six grandchildren, and a great grandchild all living in Illinois. He is also survived by sisters-in-law, Wendy Kulberg of Boca Raton, FL, and Carol Kulberg of Windham, ME. Ken was predeceased by both his parents, brothers Clarence, Marshall, Ralph, and recently Gordon, as well as by his sister Ann Carlson. Kenneth served in the US Army assigned to the field artillery land survey team in Germany from 1954-1956. When he returned to the US he began his college education receiving a Bachelor of Science in Education and a Master of Science in Educational Supervision at Illinois State University in 1964 followed by graduate courses in Special Education at DePaul and Loyola Universities in Chicago 1967 and 1968. In 1973 he began working at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals (JCAH) in Chicago becoming, in 1980, Chief Accreditation Surveyor and Coordinator of Educational Programs for the Accreditation Council for Services for Mentally Retarded and Other Developmentally Disabled Persons (AC MRDD) where he participated in the writing of the AC MRDD Standards and supervised their use in accreditation surveys and training programs for federal intermediate care facility surveyors. In 1987, Kenneth was appointed Facility Director of Howe Developmental Center in Tinley Park, Illinois to assist in bringing the very large complex into compliance with the Federal standards. The decertification of Howe by the US Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) would have meant a loss to the state of more than $10 million annually in federal Medicaid payments. He accomplished this goal in slightly less than a year, retiring into a private consulting practice until moving to Ste. Genevieve, MO. Ken and wife, Karen, were looking to move from their busy Chicago neighborhood to a quieter, more rural environment. Not ready to retire completely, they bought a run down historic hotel that they carefully transformed into a B&B inn which they ran for 20 years before being lured into full retirement in Maine. The family is planning to have a private memorial service this summer. They request that those who wish to remember Ken in a special way please make gifts in his memory to Hospice Volunteers of Waldo County, PO Box 772, Belfast, Maine 04915.