Ben Kessler
Ben is a frustrated would-be singer/songwriter who has instead found himself in a glamorous carereer of commercial real estate and high finance. Husband to Julie and father to Ella and Sophie, Ben and his family have made their home in the tree-shaded community of Bexley, where their retreiver, Kayla, very much enjoys chasing squirrels and sniffing various landmarks along her typical sidewalk rotation.
Born in Columbus, Ben spent a good deal of his younger years migrating between the Frostian hills of Connecticut during the school year and the flat, farm-filled fields of central Ohio during summers and holidays. After attending the University of St Andrews in Scotland for four years, Ben was begrudgingly bequeathed with a degree in English, and soon after the good people of the United Kingdom allowed Ben to convince his fiance, Julie, to marry him and expatriate to the pastoral paradise of central Ohio. Julie dispenses of the position of mother and home manager with a mixture of compassion, grit, and everyday common sense which continues to amaze Ben on a daily basis. Ella is just over two years old and is passionately interested in balloons, anything to do with parties, playing in the dirt, reading books, and anything in a playground or in a swimming pool incuding the playgrounds and the pools themselves. Sophie, meanwhile, is just over 6 months of age, and is generally happy to be amused by the circus that is the Kessler household, and has a congenial disposition that delights and makes you want to give her a big squeeze and say 'Sophie!' in a cooey sort of voice.
Ben counts many hobbies that he wishes he could claim he was pursuing, including pilot, mountain climber, trans-continental yachtsman, and international man of mystery. Included among the hobbies he actually does pursue are home improvement hackery, mountain biking, sailing a small sailboat in the small lakes and reservoirs of central Ohio, hiking, and technological/gadgetry obsession.
Ben serves as the music facilitator of one of Grace Central's music teams, and is a recovered agnostic who finds himself uncannilly, inevitably, and happilly compelled towards the tenents of faith and grace that serve as the foundation to Grace Central's teachings and ministry.