Dwayne F. Kimball

Dwayne Foster Kimball, 66, passed away peacefully in the company of family on September 15, 2022, at KC Hospice House in Kansas City, MO, following injuries sustained during a long and difficult battle with Parkinson’s disease and Parkinson’s disease dementia.

He was born on October 4, 1955, in Victoria, TX, the third child of George and Betty (Dollard) Kimball. From a young age, Dwayne was quiet, studious, and passionate about military history, ships, trains and aircraft. He enjoyed riding motorcycles, camping, painting, and played the banjo and guitar. Following his passion for aviation, Dwayne received a B.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from Wichita State University in 1983 and a post graduate diploma with honors focused in Aeronautics from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in 1984.

After his studies, Dwayne settled in Arlington, TX and worked for Bell Helicopter as a Handling Qualities Specialist on the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor project. He received the Robert L. Lichten Award in 1987 for his paper, “Recent Tilt Rotor Flight Control Law Innovations,” based on the development of the V-22.

He married Beeyan Lim on June 17, 1989, in Rockford, IL. On June 26, 1990, Dwayne welcomed his child, Saskia Kimball, into the world.

In 1990, he left Bell Helicopter for Ishida Aerospace Research, where he worked as a technical specialist on the Ishida TW68 tilt-wing aircraft project. In 1996, Dwayne moved to Wichita, KS to work as a technical specialist in Stability and Control and Flight Simulation for Raytheon Aircraft (later Hawker Beechcraft). His major projects included the T-6A trainer aircraft and Premier 1 and Hawker Horizon/4000 business jets. For his work he was promoted to the rank of Engineering Fellow. Following the economic downturn of the Great Recession, he moved to Savannah, GA in 2010, and worked as a technical specialist for Gulfstream Aerospace until his retirement in 2016.

In retirement, Dwayne moved to Lawrence, KS to be close to his daughter. He enjoyed spending time with family, walking around downtown Lawrence, taking motorcycle trips throughout Kansas, reading history books and working on his model kits and model train layout.

Dwayne was preceded in death by his brother, Randy Kimball, and is survived by his parents, wife, daughter, and sisters, Sherry Dyer and Nita McKinney.