Ronald Dean Kerby

With sorrow for their loss and hope in the resurrection, the family of Ronald Dean Kerby shares the news of his passing on July 12, 2026, after a brief but valiant battle with pancreatic cancer. His wife of 46 years, Cheryl, and their daughter, Lauren, were with him, singing his favorite hymns about God's faithfulness. He also leaves behind a son, Samuel, as well as his siblings, Alan and Leigh Ann. 

Ron was born in Hobbs, New Mexico, on February 23, 1955, to Leland and Nelda Kerby. He spent his childhood in an oil company town in Lea County, where he loved roaming the great outdoors. The highlight of his summers was camping with his Kerby cousins at Lake Brownwood in Texas. He also developed a lifelong love of music, and the trombone became his signature instrument. As a high school student in Jal, NM, he lettered in band, tennis, and football, and he represented Jal in the New Mexico All-State Music Festival all four years. 

In 1972, Ron started studying chemical engineering at New Mexico State University. He paid for his education by working six months out of the year at Los Alamos National Laboratory and later Mobil Oil. The other six months he spent on campus, where he played in the marching band and joined the Baptist Student Union. It took him until 1979 to earn his degree this way, but he always said that he "crammed four years of study into eight" because he was waiting for Cheryl, who started at NMSU in 1976. 

Ron and Cheryl began dating in 1978 and married on May 17, 1980, in Las Cruces. Their careers took them first to Houston, then to Denver, where they were active members of East Boulder Baptist Church. Ron sang in the choir and an a cappella group, played the trombone in a band, and supported Cheryl working with the youth group. The friends they made became like family, even decades later. 

Mobil Oil transferred Ron to Bakersfield, California, in 1988, where Lauren was born in 1989. Sam followed in 1992, and Ron found pride and joy in being a father. Both children remember him reading to them almost every night when they were young, and he went well beyond his comfort zone to be there for them. In 1993, he donned a purple sequin vest and bowler hat to join Lauren on stage at her dance recital, and when Sam started T-ball, Ron learned to coach the team. 

After years of missing New Mexico, Ron and Cheryl happily took the opportunity to move to Albuquerque in 1996. Ron took a job at a chemical engineering company that subcontracted for Intel before being hired by Intel himself in 2000. He was instrumental in Intel's Fab 11X expansion in Rio Rancho, and he contributed to projects in Dublin, Tel Aviv, and China. He retired in 2013. 

In his retirement, Ron enjoyed traveling to see his family, friends, and national parks. He visited the D-Day beaches in Normandy with Lauren in 2014, finally seeing a place he had read about for decades. He hiked Mt. St. Helens (2016) and Mt. Rainier (2017) with Sam and Cheryl while visiting Sam in Washington state, and more recently enjoyed long weekends with Cheryl in Show Low, Arizona, playing disc golf. At home, he loved to watch the birds in the backyard, especially blue jays and quail. We encourage you to remember Ron by feeding your local birds, exploring the great outdoors, and making time to spend with the ones you love. 

A memorial service will be held at 11:30 am on August 8. 2026, at Hope Church (4710 Juan Tabo Blvd NE, Albuquerque). A lunch reception will follow. If you'd like to honor Ron with your attire, consider wearing something in his favorite color: orange! In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Street Vision Housing Strategies (streetvision.org), a ministry supported by Hope Church that builds affordable housing in Albuquerque's international district.