M. Keith De Armond

1935 - 2017

M. Keith De Armond, 81, of Las Cruces, NM passed away on April 10, 2017 in Las Cruces, NM.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 am on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at La Paz – Graham's Funeral Home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. David Johnson will officiate the services.
M. Keith De Armond was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana to Murray Medford De Armond and Alice Mae De Armond on December 10, 1935. He was the first in his family to go to college, attending DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he studied chemistry. Keith was a proud member of DePauw's chapter of the fraternity Delta Chi and maintained friendships with his Delta Chi brothers all of his life.
From DePauw, Keith proceeded to the University of Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona, where he secured a PhD in chemistry. After a brief, post-doctoral stint at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Keith moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, where he spent most of his academic career as a Professor of Chemistry at North Carolina State University.
It was during his time as a professor at NC State that Keith met his wife, Anna, in fairytale circumstances – at a chateau in Czechoslovakia (in fact, at a chemistry conference at that chateau). Their two daughters, Dominique and Thea, were born in North Carolina.
Keith had been enamored of the Southwest since his time as a graduate student at the University of Arizona, so, in 1988, he took an appointment as a Professor of Chemistry at New Mexico State University and moved to Las Cruces.
Keith was an exceedingly accomplished chemist, with over one hundred original publications in his field. But he had eclectic interests – he spent his retirement reading popular science books about string theory (a recurring complaint: ""too little math""), novels (his favorites were John le Carré, Cormac McCarthy, and William Faulkner), and the Economist. His family remembers his manifold quirks with fondness – his Booker-T.-Washington-like love of peanuts; his never-ending hunts for ""hole-in-the-wall restaurants""; his talent for silly nicknames (his cat ""Mitsubishi"" remembers this especially well); his profound empathy for animals, children, and anyone in need. We have been very lucky to have him.
Keith is preceded in death by his father, mother, and his younger brother, Larry De Armond.
Keith is survived by his wife, Anna De Armond, his children Dominique and Thea De Armond, and his sister Anita Johnson.
Arrangements are with La Paz – Graham's Funeral Home 555 West Amador Las Cruces, NM 88005. To sign the online guest book, visit www.LaPaz-Grahams.com.