Kenneth D. Pimple, PhD, died on September 2, 2025 in Ithaca, NY, following a long illness. He was 64.

Born the fifth of seven children to a working-class Catholic family in Denver, CO, Ken grew up with a love of music and ritual and a strong work ethic. He was attracted to academia at an early age, earning excellent grades from the start and having special mathematics courses developed for him by the time he was in high school. He was an altar boy and washed dishes and waited tables in the priests’ kitchen at Regis High School and Regis College in Denver, where he worked his way through school and learned the Jesuit art of debate. He earned degrees in English and in Math from Regis College (now University) and worked as a programmer for Mountain Bell before heading east to study Folklore at Indiana University. There he earned MA and PhD degrees, and made several close friendships, including with the woman who eventually became his wife. His strong speaking and debate skills impressed one of his professors, David Smith, so much that Smith hired him as a researcher at IU’s Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics & American Institutions, beginning a 26-year career helping scientists and scholars learn how to teach their students to avoid ethical lapses in their research. He rose to the position of Director of Teaching Research Ethics Programs, travelled widely providing workshops, and contributed to or produced many publications.

Ken was a devoted and loving husband to his wife and father to his two daughters, and a kind companion to the family pets. He loved to crochet and would create beautiful baby blankets for many of his friends who became parents. He was a regular blood donor and was proud of all the gallons he donated. He was a long-term member of the UU Church of Bloomington (although continuing to identify as Catholic his whole life, he became disheartened by the Church’s stand against women’s ordination).

Ken was a gifted storyteller and a prolific writer, talents that he drew on both in his career field and with his friends and family. He enjoyed playing chess by mail with his older brother Doug and exchanged original science fiction stories with his brother Dennis. Few things made him happier than collaborating with his daughters in creating works of fiction and drama. In his professional life, he used stories and humor to get information across and put people at ease. His sense of humor and goofball personality were among his greatest strengths and most defining characteristics. He loved to make people laugh using silly voice, slapstick pantomime, and, occasionally, hand puppets. He had a warm presence, treating everyone as a friend. This warmth and humor persisted to the end, past the point where dementia had taken away most of his language capability.

Ken’s career at the Poynter Center came to a premature end in 2016 when IU decided to eliminate this well-respected 50-year-old institution. He began to work freelance instead, spending a couple of years building an online resource and doing contract work. He was contemplating his next move when subtle difficulties with language and planning began to interfere with his life and work, and he was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, an early symptom of what would later turn out to be Alzheimer’s Disease.

Ken is survived and sadly missed by his wife of 32 years, Jennifer Livesay; by his daughters, Gwendolyn (Oliver Moss), and Vivian (Kay Hughes); by his brothers Dennis and Kevin and his sisters Wanda Piemonte and Wilma Fuller; by his nieces and nephews Tony and Joey Piemonte, David, Megan, Bonni and Abbie Fuller, and William Pimple. He was preceded in death by his parents Raymond and Helen Pimple, his brothers Doug and Dave, and his sister-in-law Denise.

Ken devoted his whole life to trying to make things better for others. In lieu of flowers, please consider carrying on his life’s work. Donate blood, support your local animal shelter, give to public radio, or donate to the Brain Support Network, the Alzheimer’s Association or the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, or to further his professional work via the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics APPE-RISE program.

A celebration of life will be held on Monday, August 31 at 2pm at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Bloomington, Indiana.

Donations in Ken's memory can be made to honor his legacy, and will support The Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Research Integrity Scholars and Educators (APPE RISE^sm) Consortium, which promotes education and research on research ethics, research integrity, and the responsible conduct of research.