Kenny Carroll Tidwell Jr, known to his family and friends as Kenny or Ken, passed away on May 6 2026 in Los Altos, California.

Ken grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, where he attended Our Lady of Victory Catholic School and Nolan High School in Fort Worth. After getting his computer science degree at Texas Christian University (TCU) he moved to California for his first software engineering job at Intellicorp in Mountain View. He liked to create cutting edge technology with small creative teams. He worked at a variety of companies, both small and large, in roles such as software engineer, chief architect and VP of engineering.

In 1990, Ken married Jocelyn Becker, and they lived together in Los Altos for the rest of his life. In 1999, their son Kipling Tidwell was born, and the three of them went on many traveling adventures together, from Texas to Seattle to England to Japan to France. Ken and Kip loved watching Doctor Who episodes and superhero movies together.

In 1994 Ken created the website gamecabinet.com, where he published content about board games. It was the first board gaming website. Many people came to know about games through the Game Cabinet. Ken loved playing and collecting board games, and attending board game events.

Ken was an avid reader. He supported many emerging artists and attended local student plays. He loved music of all kinds, from Gregorian chanting, to grunge rock, to popular rock, to classical music. He went to so many concerts of all flavors.

Ken was taken from us too soon. He was diagnosed with cancer in June 2025, and he left us on May 6 2026 after multiple strokes.

Ken was preceded in death by parents, Kenny and Mary Tidwell. He is survived by his wife, Jocelyn Becker; son, Kipling Tidwell and sister, Tami Tidwell.