Dr. Katherine A. Kendall

KENDALL KATHERINE ANNE TUACH KENDALL (Age 100) An iconic figure in international social work education died December 1, 2010 at her home in the Collington Life Care Community, Mitchellville, Maryland. During her twenty-two years at Collington, Dr. Kendall maintained an active professional "retirement,' by writing, speaking, and consulting on historical and current issues of concern in social work around the world. She was also an ardent fund-raiser for organizations in which she had held leadership positions, including Hunter College, School of Social Work; the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE); National Association of Social Workers; and the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). Dr. Kendall received her Bachelors' degree from the University of Illinois (1933), a Masters in Social Work from Louisiana State University (1939) and a Doctorate in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago (1950). She continued to be recognized for outstanding scholarship and contributions to her field with honorary degrees and international awards well into her 90's. Dr. Kendall was active in cultural activities at Collington; producing plays, organizing celebrations and hosting informal discussion groups. She served on the community's Resident Executive Council. Although officially retired in 1978, Dr. Kendall continued to travel- speaking at and participating in meetings and conferences on every continent for more than thirty years. While at Collington, she published two social work histories and a memoir released on her one hundredth birthday. Katherine A. Tuach was born September 8, 1910 in the village of Muir of Ord, Scotland to Annie Scott Walker Tuach and Sergeant Roderick Tuach. Her family, including brothers Roderick, William and James moved to Chicago in 1920, and it was there amongst the oppressive conditions of the stock yards and the exploitation of Polish immigrants that Dr. Kendall's passion for social justice took root. She met her future husband, conservative intellectual and future Rhodes Scholar, Willmoore Kendall, Jr. at the University of Illinois in the 1930's. During WWII, she worked at the Red Cross and then joined the Secretariat of the new United Nations in the 1940's. After leaving the UN, Dr. Kendall helped form the Council on Social Work Education and was to either lead or influence its growth for much of the rest of the twentieth century. Some of Dr. Kendall's most profound and influential work was produced after she became the first full-time secretary general of the International Association of the Schools of Social Work and built it into an organization effecting university curricula and placement of social workers in social policy and program work around the world. While running the IASSW and working with the UN, UNICEF, and US Agency for International Development (USAID) during the 1970's, Dr. Kendall's networking and collaborative leadership skills helped establish numerous cooperative family planning projects in Asia and Africa. Dr. Kendall's influence on the United Nations extended well beyond her few years' employment and many consulting engagements. In 2008, at the UN's 25th "Annual Social Work Day," the Katherine A. Kendall Institute for International Social Work Education (KAKI) in Alexandria, Virginia published a document commemorating the important role of social workers in the UN and the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, championed by Eleanor Roosevelt. Attendees examined the long history of contributions to women's rights; immigrant and refugee services; eradication of extreme poverty; prevention and treatment of serious diseases; reduction of infant mortality; fight against trafficking of children; and much more. Recently, former Executive Director of the Council on Social Work Education, Donald Beless wrote: "Her intelligence, wisdom...and genuine concern for others has earned her the admiration and respect of (literally) princes and paupers, captains of industry and humble laborers, the influential and powerful, the weak and oppressed...influenced generations of social work practitioners and educators." Katherine Kendall is survived by many nieces, nephews and godchildren, and by their children across the United States; and by friends around the world. Services private.