The Rev. Dr. Ken Simurro, Jr. was born in Brooklyn, NY. He was educated at Berkeley Institute and Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School. After graduation, he attended New York University as a pre-med student but was called to the Lutheran ministry during his college years.
Leaving NYC in 1979, he attended the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, interning in West Philadelphia for one year. After receiving the Master of Divinity degree, Pastor Ken worked at calls in Windsor, Ontario and Newark, NJ. In a mid-career move, he began his teaching work in 1993 and served as a chemistry, biology, and earth science instructor and chemistry lead instructor until retiring in 2014.
He has also served in Queens and Brooklyn, NY as a pastor from 1995-2016, while studying and receiving his Doctor of Ministry degree in 2008. Near the end of 2016, he and his wife Marilyn Simurro, a recently retired speech language pathologist whom he wed in 1995, moved up to Delaware County and have enjoyed the Upstate NY lifestyle. Serving a congregation in Richmondville, he was elected dean of the Foothills Conference in 2018 and completed his call in Richmondville at the end of 2020, remaining dean going forward.
The Synod Council of the Upstate NY Synod extended a 1 1/2 -year call to Pastor Simurro for interim ministry at St. Luke's, Sidney commencing January 2021 and ending June 30, 2022. Most recently, he has accepted an ecumenical call to serve as Interim Pastor at 1st Presbyterian Church, Bainbridge and United Presbyterian, East Guilford.