Karen M. Kirby, a mathematician and insurance actuary, died July 19, 2007. She was 57.
Kirby was the valedictorian of her Garden City (N.Y.) High School class. She then graduated magna cum laude from Brown University in 1972 with a bachelor’s and a master’s in applied mathematics.
After earning a Ph.D. in statistics from Princeton in 1975, she was an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of Maryland and then at Central Connecticut State College. From 1982 until 2007, Kirby was an actuary and executive with several insurance and consulting firms in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
She was a fellow in the Society of Actuaries, and president of the Southwest Actuaries.
Kirby was a patron of the arts and a voracious reader who loved the landscape of the American West. She also was a volunteer teacher for Literacy Instruction for Texas.
She is survived by her husband of 33 years, Robert F. Leroy, and two sons.