Kevin Mark Watkins

Kevin Watkins, age 45, of Smoke Rise, GA passed away on Monday, May 31, 2021. He was born in Wichita, KS on August 22, 1975 to Bradford Watkins and Gloria (Bolles) Watkins. He graduated high school from Berean Academy in Elbing, KS and went on to graduate with a B.S. in Computer Science and Mathematics from Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA and an M.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA. After graduate school, he worked at QVT Financial in New York, NY and retired in July of 2017.

Kevin’s lifelong love of learning manifested in a wide range of hobbies from personal computer programming projects to 3D printing to custom microchip design to a stack of advanced math books at his bedside. Kevin was the “restaurant picker” for his family, and they will miss experiencing his culinary finds. After his retirement, Kevin used his routing and planning abilities to chart out and lead cross country family road trips to visit friends and family from Boston to Wichita to Santa Fe to San Diego and many many places in between, creating wonderful memories for his children. More recently, his prodigious research and analytical skills were used successfully to keep his family safe and healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic, and they are grateful for the efforts he made to protect them.

He is survived by his wife, Sarah (Bellingrath) Watkins, his children, Elizabeth and Jonathan, his parents, Bradford Watkins and Gloria (Bolles) Watkins of Wichita, KS, his brother, Jason Watkins of Portland, OR, his aunt, Joan (Jack) Keely of Santa Fe, NM, and his uncle Larry (Sarah) Bolles.

Visitation will be on Monday June 7 at 12 pm and then a chapel service at 2 pm. The chapel service will be followed by a reception. Visitation, service, and reception will all be held at A.S. Turner & Sons of Decatur, GA. A private burial service will be conducted on a future date at Floral Hills Cemetery of Tucker, GA. Attendees who are not fully vaccinated would honor Kevin’s memory by wearing a high quality mask to the services.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations to Arbor Montessori School at 2998 Lavista Road Decatur, GA 30033 (https://arbormontessori.org/giving/annual-fund/) or to GiveDirectly (https://donate.givedirectly.org/