Dean Ivan Lawry

Dean Ivan Lawry, beloved husband, father, cousin and friend, passed away on Friday, June 28, 2019 at the age of 79.  He was born on August 16, 1939 in what he liked to refer to as space. The hospital in which he was born in Morenci, AZ was on top of what is now an open pit mine. He grew up in Deming, NM, where he met Joanne, his wife of 60 years, when they were in first grade together. Dean and Joanne both graduated from Deming High School in 1957, and then moved to Las Cruces to attend New Mexico State University.

After graduating from NMSU with a degree in physics, Dean worked for the Department of the Army at White Sands Missile Range before moving to Albuquerque in 1968 to continue his career at Kirtland AFB. At Kirtland, Dean worked for the Air Force Weapons Laboratory performing electromagnetic pulse (EMP) testing on Air Force and Navy aircraft at the EMP test facilities there, including the Trestle Facility, the giant, wooden structure located to the southeast of the Albuquerque airport.  After the Cold War ended in 1992, he continued his work in the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Directed Energy Directorate managing the development and demonstration of ultra-wideband microwave devices that could successfully detect and identify concealed weapons and buried land mines, work which earned him a Scientific and Technical Management Corporate Award from the AFRL commander and the first annual R. Earl Good Award from the Director of the Directed Energy Directorate. Upon his retirement in 2005, after 42 years of service to the US Government, Dean received an Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award.

Dean was preceded in death by parents, Floyd and Ethel Lawry and daughter Darlene Westgate.  He is survived by and will be dearly missed by his loving wife, Joanne; daughter, Diane Lawry and son-in-law, Jared Westgate; as well as cousins Everett and Karen Marshall and Patsy Bice and numerous friends. A Visitation will be Wednesday, July 10, 2019, 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. with a Funeral Service following at 2:00 p.m., at FRENCH - Westside. A graveside service will be held on Thursday, July 11, 2019, 10:30 a.m., at Mountain View Cemetery, 3410 E Pine St in Deming, NM, followed by a reception at the First United Methodist Church, 1020 S Granite St. in Deming. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made in Dean’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association www.alz.org.