Karl Anthony Kelsey

On November 21, 2019, Karl Anthony Kelsey, 59, beloved brother, son, uncle, and friend went to his eternal resting place. He entered this world in Gallup, NM, born to Ronald and Maura Kelsey who preceded him in death. He is survived by his brothers and spouses, Keith and Janelle, Kevin and Regi, Ken and Joni; sisters and husbands, Karen and Greg, Kathy and Mark; cousin, Martin; his loving girlfriend, Jeanette; and many nieces and nephews.

Karl went to Gallup High School, attended college and graduated from UNM in 1983 with an Electrical Engineering degree. Karl worked for Engineering companies including Seimens, Intermec/Honeywell, Motorola, Amtech, with his last career at TransCore for the past 16 years. His work included digital design, product management, sales support, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Systems Engineering. He spent many hours at the TransCore testing site at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Park, a location he enjoyed. He had a knack for telling family all about his technical work in detail which most of the family couldn’t understand! But we DID understand how he loved his work and why he enjoyed talking about it. He was always trying to come up with new ways of solving problems or improving existing products.

Karl's work travels took him to many places in the United States and across the globe. He also talked about traveling to Hong-Kong and Brazil. In addition to traveling to Sweden in June, earlier in the year he and a TransCore coworker flew to Cambridge, ("Harvard University") Massachusetts. Karl loved to travel for work or pleasure as he enjoyed new experiences.

Karl and his cousin, Martin, were key in designing and maintaining an exhibit at the NM Museum of Natural History that holds a working model of the Spirit and Opportunity Mars Rovers. Karl advocated for young people to continue school into higher learning and happily volunteered several years as a judge in the “Science Olympiad.” This program is for school aged children which promotes participation of young people interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM.) He also was involved in inventing and designing electronic products, some of which were patented during his career.

Karl had many interests and hobbies and was, until recently, very active spending time outdoors and he loved taking photos. Karl was supportive and helpful to all his family members (and there's a lot of us!) anytime there was a need. He visited family whenever he could and often took his nieces and nephews out for fun activities like skiing or day trips. Karl had a deep love and passion for life. He never met a stranger and was generous to all. His family and his girlfriend, Jeanette, will never again be complete without him but we are forever grateful he was in our lives. He gave us endless fun and love. His sense of humor was keen and he loved to laugh at life! Words could not express how dearly he will be missed on this earth but we believe his spirit will continue to shine brightly.

A Celebration of Karl's Life will be held on Friday, December 6, 2019, 11:00 a.m. at Sunset Memorial Park Mausoleum Chapel, 924 Menual Blvd. NE Albuquerque, New Mexico.