Ken Geathers was elected to the first City Council when Kannapolis incorporated in 1984 and has been on City Council ever since.
He, like fellow council member Richard Anderson, has seen the decline of the textile industry from the inside. Geathers worked for 34 years in human resources at Pillowtex before it went bankrupt in 2003. Now, he is looking toward the future with the North Carolina Research Campus.
“I want to use my experience to help make Kannapolis a livable community,” Geathers said. “The whole country is moving from manufacturing to research.”
Geathers is now a substance abuse counselor at the Bill Hefner V.A. Hospital in Salisbury. Geathers is going back to school to get his license in substance abuse counseling, by taking advantage of the educational opportunities in the area. He said he wants others to take advantage of the same opportunities so they can get
jobs at the research campus.
“If folks get a chance to come back to Kannapolis, they have to get trained and we have to have the jobs here waiting for them,” Geathers said.
Geather’s civic involvement is extensive: He is a Paul Harris Fellow and past president of the Kannapolis Rotary Club. He is on the board of trustees of the Kannapolis YMCA and president of the John R. Mott Y Service Club. Geathers attends First Baptist Church in Kannapolis and is a past chairman of the Cabarrus chapter of the American Red Cross.
Geathers said he reads a lot — from fantasy fiction to mysteries to academic books about addiction. -Ben McNeely
