Register
Parents
Parents of current McDonogh students may sign up for website accounts. Signing up for an account allows a parent to access the online directory, DASH, and your customized parent Personal Page.
Alumni
Alumni can create an account in order to take advantage of McDonogh Connect or Pledgemail.
Login
News & Photos
Ed Kenney Retrospective: A Celebration
One of Kenney's former students, Stiles Colwill, offered the following remarks:
I am Stiles Colwill, class of 1970, and I have been asked to say a few words about our mutual friend, Ed Kenney. First and foremost, I must refer to him as “The Colonel” as that is how I have always known him.
When one looks back in time at the years of our sometimes mis-spent youth,it is always illuminating to see who most affected us during those formative years -- who gave us our vision. For many of the cadets of McDonogh from the 60's and 70's the names that frequently leap forward are Lamborn, Levy, Carre, Ramsey, White, Oliver, Burgess or Mules. However, for myself, and a small band of others, our leader and our world was hidden away from the rest of the campus. We were under the Edwards gym in the subterranean lair of Colonel Kenney.
The Colonel - a tall, thin and lanky man with deep craggy features -- a sparkle in his eye like St. Nick and at once as entertaining as Jackie Gleason or as cranky as Ebenezer Scrooge - with a raw, raspy and nasal voice and a quick retort capable of instantly capturing a students startled and frightened attention. He ruled this lair just like the roaring lion on the plains of Africa, and yet all the while, while teaching us, he painted these marvelous luminous watercolors of our surroundings. He was in our eyes the Andrew Wyeth of Baltimore.
You see, for a brief, shining moment in the late 60's and very early 70s, for reasons that I still cannot explain, the otherwise rarified, hyper-masculine, jock-based, football-is-king world of McDonogh dramatically gave way to a group of artsy types. This small band of renegades not only existed but was nurtured, encouraged and allowed to flourish. This was the era where Vietnam turned our country up side down and it is amusing to speculate that an ex-military man - known as “the Colonel” - helped turn McDonogh upside down by encouraging us so well.
AND ALL THE WHILE HE PAINTED.
For me, however, the Colonel went further yet and created a whole, new department at this conservative school. Suddenly, in my junior year, my report card changed. No longer was there an average grade in Art; it was supplanted with a 95 in Art Gallery! I cannot tell you what this did for my average for the last two years of school. Here, I learned how exhibits were put together. Here, I learned of the worlds of Benjamin West, John Singer Sargent, Copley, Peale and Thomas Eakins and all of the local artists,too - from Hazel Camp to Henry Cooper and Trafford Klotz to Stanislav Remski. All were friends and associates of the Colonel, and we were privileged to meet them.
Here, in the old Cleveland Gallery I learned of exhibit catalogues, press releases, invitations, cataloging sheets, insurance forms, opening receptions and artist’s temperaments. All became my pleasure dome under the watchful eye of the Colonel and his co-hort, Mrs. Grogg.
AND ALL THE WHILE HE PAINTED
It is hoped that your college years give you a vocation -not I. It was that junior year of high school I found not only a vocation but an avocation and a friend for life! While the parameters of the work have changed for me over the years from museum intern to assistant curator to chief curator to board member to vice chairman of the board - what I learned in Gallery all those years ago still stays with me.
Tonight, we celebrate two visions. First, the artistic vision and talent of the Colonel shown here so well in this beautiful exhibition. But for some of us it is a second vision we would also like to celebrate tonight, for it was his vision to see beyond the drawn line ... giving encouragement to students with an artistic bent - whether it be working on canvas, on the stage, through the written word or a future in museums. All of us were profoundly changed by the Colonel and his visions for us.
I am the representative here tonight for that band of renegades - and we have stuck together through these years -the Colonel not only passed on to us his vision but molded us to have visions of our own and helped give us the strength to carry them out. This is the greatest achievement a teacher can have. For this and his beautiful works we are deeply grateful to him. A heartfelt thanks seems inadequate but he knows it comes from the heart for the joyous lives his vision has given us.
View Photos
One of Kenney's former students, Stiles Colwill, offered the following remarks:
I am Stiles Colwill, class of 1970, and I have been asked to say a few words about our mutual friend, Ed Kenney. First and foremost, I must refer to him as “The Colonel” as that is how I have always known him.
When one looks back in time at the years of our sometimes mis-spent youth,it is always illuminating to see who most affected us during those formative years -- who gave us our vision. For many of the cadets of McDonogh from the 60's and 70's the names that frequently leap forward are Lamborn, Levy, Carre, Ramsey, White, Oliver, Burgess or Mules. However, for myself, and a small band of others, our leader and our world was hidden away from the rest of the campus. We were under the Edwards gym in the subterranean lair of Colonel Kenney.
The Colonel - a tall, thin and lanky man with deep craggy features -- a sparkle in his eye like St. Nick and at once as entertaining as Jackie Gleason or as cranky as Ebenezer Scrooge - with a raw, raspy and nasal voice and a quick retort capable of instantly capturing a students startled and frightened attention. He ruled this lair just like the roaring lion on the plains of Africa, and yet all the while, while teaching us, he painted these marvelous luminous watercolors of our surroundings. He was in our eyes the Andrew Wyeth of Baltimore.
You see, for a brief, shining moment in the late 60's and very early 70s, for reasons that I still cannot explain, the otherwise rarified, hyper-masculine, jock-based, football-is-king world of McDonogh dramatically gave way to a group of artsy types. This small band of renegades not only existed but was nurtured, encouraged and allowed to flourish. This was the era where Vietnam turned our country up side down and it is amusing to speculate that an ex-military man - known as “the Colonel” - helped turn McDonogh upside down by encouraging us so well.
AND ALL THE WHILE HE PAINTED.
For me, however, the Colonel went further yet and created a whole, new department at this conservative school. Suddenly, in my junior year, my report card changed. No longer was there an average grade in Art; it was supplanted with a 95 in Art Gallery! I cannot tell you what this did for my average for the last two years of school. Here, I learned how exhibits were put together. Here, I learned of the worlds of Benjamin West, John Singer Sargent, Copley, Peale and Thomas Eakins and all of the local artists,too - from Hazel Camp to Henry Cooper and Trafford Klotz to Stanislav Remski. All were friends and associates of the Colonel, and we were privileged to meet them.
Here, in the old Cleveland Gallery I learned of exhibit catalogues, press releases, invitations, cataloging sheets, insurance forms, opening receptions and artist’s temperaments. All became my pleasure dome under the watchful eye of the Colonel and his co-hort, Mrs. Grogg.
AND ALL THE WHILE HE PAINTED
It is hoped that your college years give you a vocation -not I. It was that junior year of high school I found not only a vocation but an avocation and a friend for life! While the parameters of the work have changed for me over the years from museum intern to assistant curator to chief curator to board member to vice chairman of the board - what I learned in Gallery all those years ago still stays with me.
Tonight, we celebrate two visions. First, the artistic vision and talent of the Colonel shown here so well in this beautiful exhibition. But for some of us it is a second vision we would also like to celebrate tonight, for it was his vision to see beyond the drawn line ... giving encouragement to students with an artistic bent - whether it be working on canvas, on the stage, through the written word or a future in museums. All of us were profoundly changed by the Colonel and his visions for us.
I am the representative here tonight for that band of renegades - and we have stuck together through these years -the Colonel not only passed on to us his vision but molded us to have visions of our own and helped give us the strength to carry them out. This is the greatest achievement a teacher can have. For this and his beautiful works we are deeply grateful to him. A heartfelt thanks seems inadequate but he knows it comes from the heart for the joyous lives his vision has given us.