Leroy Wilson Kidd Jr

LeRoy Wilson Kidd, Jr., known to all family and friends as Bill, died on Saturday, July 25, 2026. He had only recently moved to Brookview Assisted Living in Farmville from New York City. He was born June 4, 1934, in Meridian, Mississippi to LeRoy Wilson Kidd and Jimmye Elwood Moore Kidd. The Kidd family which included his younger brothers John Martin and James Charles then subsequently lived in Memphis, Denver, and Sheridan, Wyoming. Bill graduated from Sheridan High School, was an accomplished pianist, and the first Eagle Scout of three in the family. He began premed study at the University of Colorado in Boulder and after two years transferred to the University of Chicago where he received his B.A. He was joined at Colorado and Chicago by his younger brother John who later earned a Ph.D. In physics at Chicago. Mr. Kidd then enrolled at Illinois Institute of Technology to study architecture, earning his degree three years later, following in the footsteps of his father, an architect, builder, civil engineer, and Seabees veteran in World War II. Mr. Kidd had a distinguished career in architecture, first with Metcalf and Associates in Washington, D.C., when among other projects he spent two years in Egypt for the firm designing regional clinics for the Egyptian government, and collecting antiquities when not working. While living and working in D.C., he beautifully restored with the help of his father a very old farm house and forty acres in Loudoun County, becoming very interested in plants and landscape architecture. He then became the head medical planner for the international design firm of Helmuth, Obata & Kassabaum in New York City, requiring that he leave Virginia. Among other projects, he worked on the University of Virginia Medical Center, the New York Psychiatric Hospital, the Brooklyn Medical Center, and hospital projects abroad in northern England and Hong Kong. He was respected for his professionalism, and admired for his humanity and manners, his unpredictable sense of humor, and recognized as a southern gentleman. Living in New York City for nearly forty years at Tudor City, where he served on the board in his early years, he was a serious and enthusiastic supporter of the arts, a subscriber to the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, as well as local early music groups. He also supported New York's great art museums, and he became a very serious art collector during those years. Neighbors and staff at Tudor City always complimented his amiability and conversation. He was particularly enjoyed and adored by his family, on whom he was an important influence. "Uncle Bill" was always generous and delightfully unpredictable, a joy to be around. We will miss him acutely. Survivors include his younger brother James Kidd and his wife Teri, longtime residents of Farmville, and their two children, Milan Alexander Kidd of Oaxaca, Mexico, and Marian Susanna Kidd of Guilford, Vermont, nephew Dylan Richard Kidd and family of Los Angeles, niece Mairi Patricia KiddPanoscha and family of Portland, Oregon, and niece Jessica Alexandra Kidd and family of Oxfordshire, England. Bill was a great blessing to all our family.