Colonel Royce Dean Taylor was born on February 10, 1941, in Boles, Arkansas. He passed away at age 84 on January 20, 2026, just 20 days shy of his 85 th birthday in Los Alamos, NM.
He is survived by his wife, Holly Kenney, his children Jennifer Waller (Jay), Amy Klabunde (Kevin), Royce Taylor (Sonja), grandchildren Haley Waller, Olivia Wallace (Ian), Sydney Bloomenstein (Zach), Alexi Tscherner (Nico), Trevor Klabunde, Isaac Taylor, and Lily Taylor, and great-granddaughter Etta Wallace. He was preceded in death by his parents, Monroe and Rosie Taylor, and his brothers Maurice and Daniel Taylor.|
Royce grew up in Arkansas and California. He played baseball and football in high school. He attended college at San Jose State and received a degree in Industrial Engineering. He received a Master of Arts in Business Administration from New Mexico Highlands University in 1975 and a Master of Arts in Public Administration from the University of New Mexico in 1979.
Following his marriage to Rachel Pille, he enrolled in Officer Training School with the Air Force and served as active duty beginning in 1966 at Pease Air Force base in New Hampshire. Following his four years of active duty he entered the Air Force Reserves in 1970. Royce attained the rank of Colonel in 1989 and retired from the Air Force in 1996 after 30 years of service.
His career as an engineer was varied, beginning in Pennsylvania, then California, and eventually, New Mexico in both Albuquerque and Los Alamos. He worked for both the Department of Energy and Department of Defense for most of his career. He worked hard and was well respected in his field.
Royce and Holly met in 2001 and at the end of their first coffee date he said, “We should do this again. It was fun!” He met “his person” in Holly. They married November 13, 2012. They brought each other joy, friendship, laughter, love, and life. They had 25 years together and each was a gift.
Royce loved to sing, dance, travel, play the guitar, and volunteer when he was able. He never met a stranger and was a friend to many. He was a joy to be around, loved to laugh, and was always up for a good joke.
He was a life-long Christian who lived his faith daily and instilled his belief and faith in his
children and grandchildren. This was his legacy. He helped with youth groups, attended Sunday School, and volunteered with United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR). If you knew Royce, you knew he loved God and Jesus.
Royce instilled a great work ethic to his children. Jennifer, Amy and Royce the younger all remember many a Saturday where he would come into their bedrooms, wake them up (sometimes by threatening to tickle them with the “horse eating the corn”), and yard work or house cleaning commenced. Afterwards, play happened, but work was first.
He celebrated his and other’s accomplishments. We remember him running out onto the soccer field in the middle of a game to hug the younger Royce when he made his first soccer goal. We remember his attaining the rank of Colonel in the Air Force. We remember hi sitting in the chlorinated air of a swimming pool cheering us. We remember how proud he was when we got our first “real” jobs, when we graduated from undergraduate and graduate school. We remember how excited he was on the birth of each of his grandchildren and great grandchild.
Royce loved music. We all remember sitting around the house in the evenings (not every evening, but some) listening to him strum or pick his guitar and sing or hum along. He had a beautiful singing voice that we will miss greatly. All three children can sing the words to “Froggy Went a Courtin” because that was a favorite to play on the guitar and sing. Some of our earliest pictures with him were of him playing the guitar for us as babies and some of the latest pictures we have of him were of him playing the guitar while Holly strummed the ukelele. He and Holly had great times playing music with their friends.
Baseball was one of the things he enjoyed most, and he and Holly went to see baseball games at all the major league baseball parks. Oh, how much fun they had. Baseball, a cold beer, and a hot dog. Life didn’t get much better than that. We aren’t sure how many baseball hats he owned, but he had a lot! Royce probably remembers Dad trying to teach him to catch a baseball in the backyard in Albuquerque and darting out of the way because Dad threw a zinger. That baseball pitcher muscle memory came to play once again.
The funeral service will be held on February 20, 2026, at 10:30 a.m. at First United Methodist Church (715 Diamond Drive) in Los Alamos, NM followed by the Committal Ceremony at the National Cemetery (501 North Guadalupe Street) in Santa Fe, NM at 12:30 p.m.
Donations can be made to the Wounded Warrior Project or Tunnel to Towers.
Please visit www.riverafamilyfuneralhome.com to share memories, photos and messages for
the family.