Bob Kenney

Joan Kenney died August 12 after a long and loving life. She was 91. Joan was the daughter of Robert W. Kroeger and Loretta Moylan Kroeger . She grew up on Deepdene Road in one of several houses built by her grandfather for his children. She attended Roland Park Elementary School and graduated from Eastern High School. After graduation she worked in the drafting department of the "gas house" (BGE) while attending the Maryland Institute College of Art. Joan met her future husband, Edward Carey Kenney, at MICA at the end of WWII. They were happily married for 63 years, until his death in 2012. At MICA Joan studied fashion drawing and art education, while Edward, recently returned from service in the infantry in Italy, pursued advanced studies in painting on the G.I.Bill. When Edward took a job teaching art at McDonogh School, the newly married couple moved to the McDonogh campus, and served as house parents for resident students for a year. Joan became as much a part of the McDonogh community as her husband, and the many wonderful friendships they formed with faculty, students, staff and administrators lasted their lifetime. Some years after they moved off campus, Joan taught art in the Lower School as a long term substitute. Joan spent her adult life in devoted caregiving for all who needed her. In turn she cared for her children, her parents and in-laws, several aunts, grandchildren, friends, and her husband in his final illness. She was a deeply empathetic person and she retained a life-long interest in people and their doings. She was also smart, strong willed, articulate, funny and charming. She will be deeply missed by her children (Patrick, Bob, Mary, Ned and Kate), grandchildren (Nick, Kristen, Rachel, Scott and Allison), her children- and grandchildren-in-law (John, Judy, Robin, Joyce, Tiffani, and Brian) and her brother Robert W. Kroeger, Jr. Sadly she will miss the birth of her first great-grandchild, but that child will surely be told many loving stories of her life. - See more at:

My father taught me the meaning of ‘tough love.’ Now many of you reading this will jump to the conclusion that my father compelled me to suffer some great hardship to learn this lesson. That was certainly a popular idea when I was growing up. Force the kids to endure the harsh realities of life. Exactly the opposite was true. The love he taught me was tough on him, not on me. Countless times he went to bat for me and supported me despite having to sacrifice some of his own pride, personal conviction, or comfort. After some time when I had been defiant, argumentative or downright combative and he had responded similarly, he came and apologized. Not for my behavior, I came to realize, but for his own, where he thought he had not achieved some standard he held himself to. The lesson is simple enough. One I’ve needed with my own children and not easy to live up to. Love is sacrifice. I need to give up my own foolish pride, my selfish ambition, my wants, my time, and my self-serving indignation. The proving ground for this may be your own family as it has been for dad and myself, but the real test is carrying this sacrifice into the world. Something dad excelled at as well, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”