Biographical Sketch of Tim Kilby

Timothy Jackson “Tim” Kilby is an American educator, artist, technologist, and genealogist whose diverse career spans multiple fields, including art photography, computer programming, online education, and historical research.

Early Life and Education

Timothy Jackson Kilby, commonly known as Tim Kilby except in formal contexts, was born and raised in the village of Sperryville, Rappahannock County, Virginia. His parents were Lucio Jackson Kilby, who worked as a farmer, apple orchardist, and manager of a fruit growers’ cooperative and cold storage facility, and Helen Mitchell Kilby, who was a homemaker and schoolteacher. Kilby is the second of four children, with two sisters and one brother.

He attended rural public schools during the 1950s and 1960s and graduated from Rappahannock County High School in 1965. That same year, he enrolled at Virginia Polytechnic Institute (Virginia Tech), earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Arts Education in 1969.

Military Service and Early Teaching Career

Upon graduation, Kilby began teaching at Falls Church High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, for three years. To avoid being drafted during the Vietnam War era, he enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1972 for a three-year term. Kilby served with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command at Cameron Station in Alexandria, Virginia, as a photographer and Studio Chief, reaching the rank of Specialist 5th Class (SPC5).

After completing his military service, Kilby returned to teaching in Fairfax County, this time at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria, Virginia.

Photography Career

Formal Training and Artistic Development

In 1976, Kilby pursued advanced education at the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. After completing his thesis, he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography in 1980. This credential marked the beginning of his combined path in college-level teaching and fine art photography.

Kilby served as a photography instructor and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Art at Lord Fairfax Community College (now Laurel Ridge Community College) in Middletown, Virginia, from 1980 to 1984.

Artistic Recognition

Between 1977 and 1987, Kilby achieved significant recognition as a fine art photographer. He specialized in black-and-white images created with a large-format (4 × 5 inch) camera. His work has been compared to that of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, and Minor White. Kilby’s photographs were exhibited extensively in group and solo shows, and collected by private collectors and institutions, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, and the George Eastman House International Museum of Photography.

In 1981, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts Photographers' Fellowship: Emerging Artists grant for his abstract color photography. The exhibit "Tim Kilby — Photographs 1978–1987" displays four collections of his art.

Technology and Computing Career

Early Computing Interests

In 1980, Kilby acquired his first personal computer, an Atari 800. While he initially used it for gaming, he soon began programming, finding creative fulfillment in developing his own applications. Kilby taught himself the BASIC programming language as well as Assembly language, publishing programs and articles in magazines such as Byte, Compute, Micro, and various newsletters.

He developed DigiDraft, a computer drawing program, and later created Visualizer, a graphics management system. Visualizer was commercially published by Maximus, Inc. in 1984, predating Microsoft PowerPoint by three years! Kilby subsequently became Director of Microcomputer Research & Development at Maximus.

Professional Development

From 1988 to 1993, Kilby was Director of Operations at Page Planners, Inc., providing advanced computer and graphics services, software utilities, database systems, and electronic publishing.

In 1993, Kilby joined a team at CAE Link to develop adult computer-based training, remaining through transitions under new corporate owners, including General Motors, Raytheon, and L3 Communications. During this period, he advocated for applying emerging Internet technology to education.

Web-Based Training Pioneer

In 1994, Kilby, an early Internet adopter with experience in computer-based training, coined the terms “Web-Based Training” (WBT) and “Web-Based Performance Support System” (WBPSS). He pioneered these fields by developing WBT applications, launching the Web-Based Training Information Center website in December 1994. This platform supported information sharing, practitioner surveys, and the advancement of online learning.

Kilby’s innovations established him as a leader in online education, leading to frequent citations in professional literature and invitations to speak at technology conferences.

From 2003 until his retirement in 2014, Kilby served as Director of E-Learning Systems Development at Government Micro Resources Incorporated (GMRI), staying through the firm’s acquisition and name change to Fulcrum IT.

Personal Interests and Achievements

Adventure and Travel

Kilby’s interest in major events led him to witness and photograph the Apollo 15 launch at Kennedy Space Center in 1971 as a credentialed member of the press corps.

He has traveled to witness three solar eclipses: Prince Edward Island, Canada (1972); off the coast of West Africa (1973); and Charleston, South Carolina (2017, the latter partly obscured by clouds).

Kilby is an avid traveler, having visited five continents and various countries including Western Europe, North Africa, Australia, Japan, Canada, and 47 U.S. states.

Caving Activities

Kilby began wild caving in 1985, finding the activity physically demanding and enjoyable. He became a life member of the National Speleological Society. In 1989, he purchased land containing the entrance to New River Cave in southwest Virginia, which he later sold in 2014 to the Society to further recreational and scientific exploration.

Tim was appointed by Governor George Allen in 1995 to the Virginia Cave Board, where he served a four-year term.

Achievements and Memberships

As a Boy Scout in Troop 65, Sperryville, Kilby achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and was inducted into the Order of the Arrow. He also operated as an amateur radio operator, call sign WN4TLG, and built his own radio equipment.

Kilby is a member of two high-IQ societies: Mensa and Intertel. He is also active in local, state, and national genealogical societies.

Genealogical and Historical Research

Since his teens, Kilby has engaged in genealogical research, with intensive study beginning in 2010. He traced his maternal ancestry to John Woodson, a surgeon who immigrated to Jamestown from England in 1619, and his paternal line to John Kilby (c. 1710–1772), of Culpeper County, Virginia. Kilby’s documentation revealed that four generations of his paternal ancestors were enslavers—a discovery that led him to assist African American genealogical research for descendants of Kilby enslavers and others.

In 2021, Kilby published Gourdvine Black and White: Slavery and the Kilby Families of the Virginia Piedmont, which won the 2021 International Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society Book Award for Regional Genealogy and the 2022 Phillis Wheatley Book Award for Genealogical Research.

Kilby is an active member of Coming to the Table, a national organization with over 50 chapters devoted to healing the wounds of slavery and racial oppression.

Current Interests and Values

Tim Kilby's current interests include investing and financial markets, visual and performing arts, collecting historic photographs, reading, historical research, and social activism. He identifies with Unitarian Universalism, humanism, cosmopolitan internationalism, and progressive social liberalism.

Tim retired from professional employment in 2014 and continues his genealogical, historical, and social justice work in Fairfax, Virginia, where he and his wife, Lois, have lived for the past 38 years.