Kenneth R Carper

Kenneth Ray Carper departed this life on July 5, 2025.  He was born March 5, 1957 to his parents, Ralph Howard and Jean Stafford Carper, on their 7th wedding anniversary in Camden, South Carolina.  His father was a Roses retail store manager moving up the managerial ladder, and consequently Kenny spent his childhood moving to various small towns in Virginia, Georgia, and Tennessee.  He moved to Durham, North Carolina in junior high school, then to Henderson, North Carolina and on to Galax, Virginia for high school.  His love of comfortable fashion, his work ethic and his ability to relate to people were all developed through his father’s employment at Roses, where Kenny spent Christmas breaks assembling bicycles and helping customers with their Christmas layaways. 

Kenny had a lifelong love for sports, particularly baseball and football.  He played little league football in Tifton, Georgia, often fondly recalling the bus that brought boys from surrounding towns, the bus driver calling out “Omega, Ty Ty and Chula boys, get on the bus!”.  He played baseball (catcher) and football (fullback, guard, & defensive end) for Galax High School and regarded those years with Coach Bryant as some of the best, learning life lessons of hard work and loyalty that remained with him throughout his life.  He became lifelong friends with his teammates, and enjoyed trips, visits, and calls with them for the rest of his life.  Kenny played semi-pro baseball for one season after high school.  He enjoyed Hokie Football, taking his sons to games and meeting up with his friends in Blacksburg.  In recent years he enjoyed texting commentary of the Hokie Football coaching calls with his brother Paul and other Hokie Nation friends.  He was a member of Kappa Sigma at Virginia Tech and enjoyed his many friendships from his college years, gathering annually including in 2025 with his college golfing buddies.

Kenny moved to Galax as a high school sophomore and considered it fortuitous that he made friends with some boys that introduced him to the game of golf at the Galax course.  Thus began the fun and frustrating love of the game.  He played about once a year during his sons’ early and busy years then progressed to every other day or so in retirement, finishing his earthly life with an eight handicap.  He had two holes in one during his life, one in the summer of 1986 at Blue Ridge Country Club with his dad and brothers, and one while living in Summerfield, North Carolina at Bur-Mil Park Golf Course with his son Ray. 

As a father, Kenny coached his sons in baseball and basketball in the youth leagues in Summerfield, North Carolina, and made an impact not just on them but on tons of youngsters who participated in the Summerfield Recreation Association.  His teams routinely won championships and always finished toward the top of the league, but he was intentional in his way of encouraging every boy who participated.  He threw so much batting practice to the kids over the years that eventually he had to have rotator cuff surgery from throwing so much.  He was a great athlete throughout his life and could play one-on-one basketball with high school kids even into his midlife years. 

Having made a career change in midlife from manufacturing to residential home building, he had his sons work construction jobs with him.  While there would be tons of whining up front, most work sessions ended with the boys enjoying a cold cream soda together.  When his sons got into high school, their nightly routine became hours long ping pong sessions, and Kenny could hold court with anyone so well that he would only switch to his dominant right hand if someone was pushing him to a close game late in the count. 

Kenny’s love of daily naps was legendary.  He also enjoyed and was devoted to his morning Bible reading time.  He was a huge extrovert and would develop sets of friends wherever he went in both his careers, in his morning gym group, amongst church friends, beach friends and anywhere else he spent time.  He had one of the kindest hearts you will ever find and spent tons of  time over the years doing construction charity work and just in general trying to help both friends and strangers in need.  He liked soul and big band music, action movies, reading, Ghassan’s, PragerU podcasts, and sports documentaries.  Time spent with his sons in later years involved golfing, training, spades games, college football analysis and lots of laughter.  A lifelong runner, he finished first in his age group in the calabash 5k at Thanksgiving 2024, shortly before being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

Kenny graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research and from Elon College in 1990 with a Masters in Business Administration.  He received his North Carolina Professional Engineer designation in 1985.  He worked at P. Lorillard Tobacco Company for nineteen years as an Industrial Engineer and then started his own company as a North Carolina Licensed General Contractor, building beautiful homes in Guilford County and Brunswick County, North Carolina. His most prized earthly work, however, was raising his sons and encouraging them, along with friends, relatives, and co-workers, in their faith journeys toward Christ.  Nothing mattered more.

Kenny was preceded in death by his parents, and in June of this year, his brother Paul.  He is survived by his wife of 37 years, Julie; his sons Ray (Ashley), Mason (Molly), and Nolan; grandchildren Teddy, Ellie Jane, Thomas, and Annie Grace; aunt Lillian Vaill; brother David Carper (Cindy); brothers-in-law Will Armfield (Cindy), Eddie Armfield (Shannon), John Armfield (Robin); sister-in-law Betsy Collins (Mickey); nieces and nephews Laura Mays (Charlie), Philip Carper, William Armfield (Kaitlyn), Hailey Fisher (Eric), Ashley Couper (Grant), Grace Armfield, Jim Armfield (Mallory), Anna Bryant (Kyle), Trey Collins, Warren Collins, Jefferson Collins and Janie Collins; great-nieces and great-nephews Claire, Grayson and Blakely Mays, Victoria, Caroline and Eliza Armfield, Brett and Travis Fisher, Zoey and Audrey Couper and Josie Armfield, and a host of cousins.

The family would like to thank the many friends who cared lovingly for Kenny during his period of illness with food, calls, messages and prayers. It is our hope that his positive spirit will live on through each person he encountered in this life.

A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday, July 19, 2025 at Definition Church, 1806 Merritt Drive, Greensboro, North Carolina 27407, with a visitation hour beginning at 2:00 pm in the upstairs lobby followed by a service at 3:00 pm in the Youth Room. 

Julie and family will also gather informally to receive friends on Saturday, July 26, 4:00 to 6:00 pm at 412 6th St, Sunset Beach, North Carolina. 

Memorials may be made to Triad Fellowship of Christian Athletes, c/o Wayne Robinson, Director, 317-J South Westgate Drive, Greensboro, North Carolina 27407; Pancreatic Cancer Action Network, 2101 Rosecrans Avenue, Suite 3200, El Segundo, CA 90245; Prager University Foundation, 3389 Sheridan St #293, Hollywood, Florida 33021; Lower Cape Fear LifeCare, 1414 Physicians Drive, Wilmington, North Carolina 28401, or to a charity of choice in memory of Kenny. 

Online condolences are encouraged and may be sent to the family at www.fulwoodfuneralservice.com