Dr. Thomas Joseph Kenny III, EdD

MADISON - Dr. Thomas Joseph Kenny, III, age 87, of Madison, passed away serenely at home, surrounded by his loving family, on Friday, July 1, 2022. The son of Thomas J. Kenny, II, and Loretta (nee Myers) Kenny Paden, Thomas, a.k.a. Tommy Joe in his younger days, Tom when he was older, Dad to his four children, and Papa to his eight grandchildren and one great-grandson, was born Jan. 22, 1935, in Gibbon, Okla., a small, forgotten town that dried up with the interminable droughts of the 1930s and blew away with the subsequent dirt storms that transformed the Southern Plains region into the barren Dust Bowl it became in their wake. The only feature to mark Gibbon, Okla., today is the abandoned grain elevator that his father managed during the Great Depression, which still stands beside the phantom tracks of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad that once served it. Tommy Joe grew up in Medford, OK, raised by his mother, Loretta, whom he often described as being tougher than whang leather (which Gregory Peck explained in the movie Shoot Out is something that “don’t come apart in the rain”) and his stepfather, Robert B. Paden. When he wasn’t out smoking snipes with his brothers underneath the fairground bleachers in back of their yard or placing coins someone “found” on the tracks of the railroad outside town and watching as they either flew off the rails or were flattened onto them by the train as it whizzed by, then he could be found out chasing rainbows with his brother, Phillip, for the pot of gold Phil promised was at the end. In and among all that, he also managed to bike around town delivering four different newspapers to help support his family. He loved all sports, but especially football. He was a star center and offensive guard for the Medford High School Cardinals, and after graduating in 1952, he went on to play football at Northern Oklahoma Junior College in Tonkawa, Okla., before enlisting in the U.S. Army where he served three years as a communications specialist near Munich, Germany. Thomas returned home to complete his BA in education at Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Okla. While there, he enjoyed playing football for the NWOSU Rangers before graduating in 1960. He also married his college sweetheart, Judith (nee Brown) Kenny, in December 1960. Following college, Thomas taught high school English in Protection, Kan., and Waynoka, Okla., while also attending summer school at the University of Kansas in Topeka where he earned his master’s degree in education in 1964. He continued teaching English after moving to Visalia, Calif., but returned to Kansas to embark upon his career in school administration after accepting a job as high school principal in Tribune. Around that same time, he began working toward his doctorate in education during summers at what is now the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, where he received his doctoral hood in 1969. In late summer of 1969, he moved his family to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he assumed the position of Director of Secondary Education for the Council Bluffs Community School District and was later promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Schools. One formidable issue Dr. Kenny continually grappled with during his tenure was the problem of the aging school buildings within the district. After several attempts to pass bond issues to rehabilitate the old buildings and/or construct new ones, he and other district administrators, along with the board of education, were finally successful in passing a contentious referendum to construct a brand-new building at a brand-new site to house Kirn Junior High School students displaced from the old Kirn building after a fire gutted much of it in October 1976. Some members of the community had wanted to salvage and rehab the damaged school or build a new one at its former location to save taxpayer dollars, but after doing a thorough investigative study of the complex issues surrounding the problem, Dr. Kenny proved that building the school at the proposed new site was without a doubt more economical in the long run and would save taxpayers millions of dollars in transportation costs alone. Before retiring from education, Dr. Kenny served as Superintendent of Schools in Fort Atkinson, Wis., where he helped the school district tighten its fiscal budget and pass a referendum for expansion of the former high school building in the 1980s. He then moved with his wife to Madison, Wis., where he sold insurance until he retired altogether. Throughout his life, Thomas enjoyed oil painting, golfing, bird hunting, country-western music, and astronomy. An avid stargazer, he joined the Omaha Astronomical Society in the early 1970s, attending several outings to a private observatory near Gretna, Neb. He loved taking his kids to the College World Series held annually in Omaha, Neb. He also held a keen interest in military history, both ancient and modern, and was particularly well-versed in Civil War history, having visited many battlegrounds of the war, including Bull Run, Williamsburg, Chattanooga, Harpers Ferry, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain, and Appomattox. He was also a member of the Lions Club, the Rotary Club, and the Knights of Columbus. A devout Catholic and ordained extraordinary minister, he led prayer services and administered Communion to ailing nursing home residents whenever he could. Above all else, no matter where he went or what he did, he dedicated himself to serving the people and the community around him. Thomas was also a loving husband, and the best father, grandfather, and great-grandfather a body could ever know. A true Renaissance man, he taught his children and grandchildren that they had a moral obligation to fight tyranny in all its forms as he guided them through the rocky straits of life like a lighthouse beacon, teaching them not only strength and self-sufficiency but also compassion and humor. He was kind, generous, brilliant, and funny. Infamous for his “shortcuts” (that usually involved dirt roads and sudden, sharp turns), he will always and forever be remembered for that mischievous twinkle in his blue eyes and that charming, yet sardonic, Kenny smile that always gave away what he was truly thinking. Thomas was preceded in death by his father, mother, and stepfather; as well as his sister, Joyce (Donn) Fuss; his brothers, Larry Eugene, Paul (Betty), Phillip (Karen), and Donny Lee Kenny; his nephew, Mike Kenny; and his beloved Vizsla, Lady. He is survived by Judi, his wife of 61 years; his children, Anne (James Werth) Kenny, Angela (James) Thibault, Thomas (Tammi) Kenny, and Amy Kenny; along with his grandchildren, Kevin (Ashley Pearson) Werth, Maya (Patrick) Howey, Kali Thibault, Thomas Kenny, Jacob Kenny, Kate Kenny, Samuel Shebani, Adam Shebani; and his great-grandson, Oliver Pearson-Werth, as well as Holly Kenny, Khaled Shebani; and numerous nieces and nephews. In the sweet words of Thomas’ great-grandson, Ollie, who visited him the night before he died and gave him a little yellow bulldozer because he looked like he needed one, “Night-night, Papa. We love you.” A funeral service will be held at ST. BERNARD CATHOLIC CHURCH, 2450 Atwood Ave., Madison, at 11 a.m. on Friday, July 15, 2022. Visitation will be held at GUNDERSON EAST FUNERAL AND CREMATION CARE, 5203 Monona Drive, Madison, from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. on Thursday, July 14, 2022, and also at the church from 9 a.m. until the time of the service on Friday. Memorials in Dr. Thomas J. Kenny’s name may be made to the Council Bluffs Community School District. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com. Gunderson East Funeral & Cremation Care 5203 Monona Drive (608) 221-5420