Ronald Lynn Kolbe

Durham, New Hampshire: Ronald (Ron) Lynn Kolbe, 74 of Durham, NH died on 12 of April 2025 at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital with his wife and daughter by his side after a hard-fought battle with Pancreatic Cancer.
He was born on June 3, 1950, in Washington, DC; the son of Casper Maul Kolbe and Ruthlee Cade Kolbe.
As a child he moved with his family to Greenbelt, Maryland. He attended High Point High School. He received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park. His Master's in Nuclear Engineering from Purdue University and is PhD was in Computational Fluid Dynamics from the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI).
Over the course of his career, he worked for many government contracting companies, including Northrup, NASA and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. He was a member of multiple professional societies.
He was a member of the United Methodist Church, most recently at St. John's United Methodist Church in Dover, NH. He enjoyed gardening and feeding the birds.
Ron is survived by his spouse of 41 years, Margaret Garrett Kolbe; his daughter, Katharine (Kate) Mellitz and her husband Daniel Mellitz and his 2 granddaughters, Mackenzie and Abigail of Grand Rapids, Michigan; his sisters, Elizabeth (Betty) Kolbe and her husband John Moore of Bowie, Maryland and Carolyn Bray and her husband Peter Bray of Dunkirk, Maryland; and numerous nieces and nephews and friends. He was pre-deceased by his parents, Ruthlee and Casper Kolbe.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in his name to the Pancreatic Cancer Foundation under the American Cancer Society at P.O. Box 6704 Hagerstown, MD 21741 or on the website for the Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.
A funeral service will be held at 11 am on Wednesday, April 23, 2025, at St. John's United Methodist Church, 28 Cataract Ave. Dover, NH 03820 for family and friends in the New England region. A lunch will follow the service.
Since Ron grew up in the Washington, DC area and has many friends and family members in that area, there will be a second memorial service on Saturday, May 3, 2025, at 11 am at Friendship United Methodist Church, 22 West Friendship Road Friendship, Maryland 20758. A lunch will follow the service. Interment will be a private service at a later date.