Kenneth Steck was born in York, Pennsylvania, but grew up in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He was the son of Dr. and Mrs. A. R. Steck. He attended York Collegiate Institute and the Dickinson Preparatory School before pursuing the Philosophical course at his hometown college as a member of the class of 1919. While at the College he was a member of Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity.
Steck withdrew in the spring of 1917 to join the army and was assigned to the Engineering Corps. He died of pneumonia on April 24, 1918 at his army camp near Anniston, Alabama. He was twenty-five years old and then a corporal. Steck was the first Dickinsonian and the first man from Carlisle to die in the First World War. His death was announced in the Dickinsonian on May 2, 1918. His name is featured on the First World War memorial on the square in Carlisle.
