Kenneth Ray Dixon

Kenneth Ray Dixon, 82, died in Lubbock on December 9, 2025. He was born May 30, 1943, in St. Clair, Missouri, to the late Donald and Helen (Clutts) Dixon. Ken graduated from Richland High School, Missouri, in 1961. He then became a student at Drury University in Springfield, Missouri, where he majored in history, graduating in 1965. A few years he later earned an MFA from the University of Arkansas.

For a number of years he taught at Baldwin Wallace University in Berea, Ohio, and later at Kalamazoo College in Michigan. For half a year he earned his living as an artist in London, England, but when the oil embargo of 1973 hit, he returned to the states, seeing that he could no longer make a living there. In 1975 he began teaching visual arts at Texas Tech University, where he made tenure and was later awarded full professor status. He retired in 2003 as professor emeritus so that he could paint full time. His work is included in the public collections of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (TX), the Museum of Modern Art (Miami, FL), the Nelson-Adkins Museum (Kansas City, MO), El Paso Museum of Art (TX), Museum of South Texas (Corpus Christi), Kalamazoo Institute of Arts (MI), Tweed Museum of Art (Duluth, MN), the Museum of Art at Midwestern State University Texas (Wichita Falls), San Antonio Museum of Art, Amarillo Art Center, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (CO)—as well as others throughout the country. A number of his works are part of the permanent collection held at the Texas Tech Museum.

Ken is preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Joyce (Dixon) Bruns. Left to mourn, then celebrate, his life partner of nearly fifty years, Richard Jespers, as well as Ken’s nieces and nephews: Donna Hix (Richard), Larry Bruns (Debbie), Lonnie Bruns (Cassie), Walt Bruns (Barb), and Lagina Fitzpatrick—as well as their children and grandchildren.

A celebration of Ken’s life will be held on a later date, at the First Unitarian Universalist Church, 2801 42nd Street in Lubbock. Arrangements are under the personal care of Combest Family Funeral Homes and Crematory. Please check their website for date and time. Ken once declared he wanted his ashes to be spread by the wind across the landscape of West Texas, a place he loved almost immediately. If family and friends wish to honor him, they may contribute to the newly established Ken Dixon art scholarship at Texas Tech University by using the link www.give.ttu.edu/Dixon.