Joy Kahl

Joy E. Kahl was born on April 18, 1933, in Clifford, North Dakota, to Alfred and Florence Rygg. The family later moved to Maddock, where she graduated from high school in 1951. Full of life and energy, Joy loved being the center of attention, dancing, and singing. She was a devoted daddy’s girl, cherished by her father throughout his life, and she took great pride in her appearance, always dressing with care and style.

In the summer after her first year of college, Joy met Charles Kahl while he was surveying in Maddock. She knew immediately that she would marry him, and on August 22, 1954, they were married in Maddock. Their daughter Lori arrived in 1955, followed by son Tom in 1957. Joy left her job to raise their children while Charles completed his civil engineering degree at NDSU. Once the children were in school, she began working as a lab technician at the Fargo Clinic, where she remained until her retirement in 1996. She took great pride in her work and especially enjoyed teaching and mentoring students, who considered her the life of the party.

Joy had a passion for scrapbooking and gardening. She created detailed scrapbooks to preserve memories from every trip she took. After retiring, she and Charles spent sixteen years traveling across the United States with close friends and enjoyed their summers at their lake cabin on Big Detroit Lake in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. Their travels came to an end when Joy was diagnosed with frontotemporal lobe dementia in the fall of 2011. Charles cared for her at home until he suffered a stroke in September 2021, after which she moved to the memory care unit at SMP Health – St. Catherine North in Fargo, where she lived until her passing. Charles preceded her in death on April 15, 2023.

Joy died on March 10, 2026, in Fargo, surrounded by the compassionate care of the staff at SMP Health – North Campus and HIA Hospice. She is survived by her daughter Lori (Mark) Thrall of Fargo, son Tom (Dawn) Kahl of Fargo, grandchildren Ryan (Pakou) Van Dyke, Andrea (Tyler) LaMont, and Logan (Maddison) Kahl, and five great-grandchildren: Gavin LaMont, Kinley LaMont, Mason Yang, Ariya Van Dyke, and Emerson Kahl. She was preceded in death by her husband Charles, her brother Doug Rygg, and her parents Alfred and Florence Rygg.