Living in Seattle, Ken was well known locally and nationally on arcade and pinball forums for his knowledge of game repair. In my early days of collecting he was the guy that chimed in every time someone had a monitor problem with things to try and usually the solution. He was one of those older dudes that had been around forever, learned everything by doing it, and was happy to mentor, help and share with newer collectors. In the Northwest that's something we've all taken to heart, we put a lot of effort into networking, doing local repair parties, doing group game buys, putting on our local show and helping each other out. As other people have mentioned, he was a bit of recluse, but occasionally we could talk him into showing up to repair parties and he would provide invaluable insight, great stories about the old days, and he had a great sense of humor. Here he is helping solve the monitor problems with my Williams Multigame, which many of you have played over the years at PAX, Emerald City Comicon and the Northwest Pinball and Arcade Show. This dude helped out so many people fixing their games and enlightening us all in game repair, his legacy will live on!

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Infamous is not the right word.

This is truly sad news. Ken was so knowledgeable and helpful, truly one of Pinside greats. He will be missed.

Heh, definitely not the right word. That means famous for being or doing bad. Ken was the polar opposite of that.

From the other side of the world I had the opportunity to regularly communicate with Ken via email. He was a vault of knowledge and wisdom across such a panorama of forums and work endeavours. But above all he was an individual of impeccable integrity and high values who was never to busy to provide help and a solution to those in need. But beyond what uniquely he did while with us he will continue to be judged by the extraordinary legacy he now leaves. RIP friend.

Sad news indeed. He certainly was a knowledgeable chap and provided a lot of help and advice to the community. Sleep well chap.

First came across kens posts on KLOV
years ago and then joining pinside was
pleasantly surprised to find him here

Always solid understandable advice/recommendations

When you saw that avatar it kind of turned on your
brain to "hey I better pay attention here!"

I was shocked and crushed when I learned of Ken's passing. Clearly, he was a hall of famer who shared his knowledge kindly and freely with all of us in the pinball community who asked for advice or help. He has left an indelible legacy and a great example to follow. I regret that I never got the chance to say goodbye to him personally.

As others have said, sad news. Never met him but applied his advice provided on Pinside to many projects. Thank you. RIP.

Followed a lot of his advice shared on KLOV and Pinside. A big loss to the collector community. My condolences to his family and close friends

A very helpful and nice guy. RIP Ken thanks for helping me figure stuff out more than once. Your vast knowledge will be missed.

Wow, as so many others have said I always appreciated reading his posts, he always seemed to be there with helpful advice!

He will be missed for sure.

I never meet Ken however when ever I see is avatar or photos of him I always think life is good

RIP Ken

I found the full image of his avatar when I heard the news. He seemed to love everything mechanical

http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/10441

Ken Layton and Drive in Projector (resized).png

Has there been an obit published? Can't seem to find it.

Very sad! I never knew Ken but, as many have said, enjoyed and appreciated his selfless input to the hobby and Pinside. Hoping the best for his family and friends.

Thanks, good catch, corrected!

I first became aware of Ken on the KLOV forums. He was always willing to lend his knowledge to help out people diagnose their issues with their arcade machines. He was in my opinion, one of the Great Ones.

Ken has been such an amazing asset to the community. He always pushed for documentation and information of things, specially the unique items. He will be missed greatly, RIP.

Is that Dokert in the pic too?

Very sad to hear. Rest in peace pinball brother.

This is the plain truth. IMHO: there are only a few people in the northwest region who I would trust with repair. Ken absolutely was in that category. A true loss to the local and forum communities. I really cannot add anything more to what everybody else here has already said.

I bumped into Ken a few times at Welby's shop where he was always working on a machine there.

RIP Ken. The northwest (and everybody else) has a lost a titan of repair knowledge.

Yes. That looks like a picture from some years ago but Dok is unmistakable. Another very trusted individual for repair and service in the northwest region.

Yeah, the photo is from a 2011 repair party at Brad in Oly's house, we all look a little older and have less hair now!

Super sad news indeed.

Ken was a great guy, very knowledgeable with EM's, and an asset to the pinball community in general. He helped me on a few occasions as well even as far back as the RGP days years ago.

He will be missed. RIP pinball buddy.

FWIW, I'm only 40. (but I'll probably be dead inside 10 years LOL). I was a lot closer to 30 when I bought my first pins, and 2 of my first 3 games were EMs. I like EMs a lot, just wish I understood more about troubleshooting them. I'm pretty decent at repairing score reels though.

Bummer... Ken was the best. You could tell he lived to help people. No drama, no nonsense.

The Love for Ken here has been great, I wish he could read all your posts. I first met Ken around 1979, I was about 12 and regularly visited a large arcade in Olympia Washington down the street from Capital Amusements were Ken worked. He was nice enough to show me the inside of a pinball machine he was just setting up. I can remember his kindness. We meet again many years later. Ken was quiet , humble, lived simply and took pride in the many machines he and Welby restored for the Olympia Pinball Museum. I will miss him greatly.

Condolences to his friends and family. I'm very sad to hear this news. To say Ken will be missed is an understatement. It felt like almost every time I searched for a pinball or arcade solution over the years, I would find Ken's advice on some forum or newsgroup, always detailed and helpful, always willing to provide knowledge and advice. The vast store of information and experience he had was a benefit to us all.

As others have said, his legacy will live on thanks to the posts and info he has shared over the years. Current and future generations will find Ken's helpful advice all over the place, and be thankful for all that he's given us. Rest in peace, Ken.

So sorry to hear that. His posting on Pinside pales in comparison to that on KLOV, that guy was a posting legend there for sure. Always chiming in with helpful advice.

Earlier I posted about how he will be missed. He is one of those guys that I would get to know from Pinside but then he would show up in other places I would hang out occasionally, that always tickled me. You would spot him right away because he always used that same avatar pic. Wherever he was, he was always giving out great advice for all sorts of problems. He was probably posting in lots of other places as well. I saw posts from him in these forums.

Pinside
KLOV
Toyotanation
Antiqueradios

RIP Ken
Never met him
but felt I knew him well.

Sad news. He was a ubiquitous and helpful presence on this and other arcade forums. RIP Ken.

Total bummer. Ken's posts have always been informative and very helpful when trying to diagnose and resolve a pin related issue. He certainly knew his schitt.

Rest in peace Ken. You are being missed now and will be for a long, long time.

Dang it! He and I had been emailing each other when he got sick, and then he went silent. It worried me, 'cause Ken would answer any email with any question, and would always want to talk about which games he was working on.

It's going to be weird visiting Olympia without Ken to talk with.

Just saw this, so sad, have seen many of his thread and advice here and at KLOV. We have lost a great amount of knowledge and experience. Many condolences to his family and friends.

Ken sure knew his way around slot machines and freely shared his knowledge on those forums too. RIP Ken.

Any one know what happened to him? Was he fighting a lengthy illness?

Ken helped me out a few times on fixing a pin and juke if memory serves. Very patient fellow, went out of his way to help. Huge loss for us all. My condolences to his family and close friends.

Whenever we'd visit Ken at the shop, he'd say "You haven't taken my picture". So we would.... Here's one from shortly before he died:

IMG_1633 (resized).JPG

Thanks for sharing the pic, Greg.

You're welcome. You can see what a gentle guy he was, and how much he loved tinkering on old machines.

This is sad news. I had just sent him a message a couple days before he supposedly passed that thanked him for selling me a blank LISY1 PCB. I hope he had a chance to see that. He helped a lot of people on a lot of different groups. At least his memory will live on in the forums and he can still help people.

Losing Ken not only robbed us of a good solid human being, but was akin to a library burning down. Wonderful guy who will truly be missed.

I wouldn't be surprised if his middle name was Alexander...

Too obscure?

Yeah... at least for me. BTW, his middle name was Leroy.

RIP Ken. He has helped a few times over the years on KLOV and Pinside. Very sad...

Thanks for the link! I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know about him from the obituary. Hopefully we'll be able to attend the celebration in the spring.