Dr. Hugh Kinard, 82, educator who prized teachable moment

By J.E. Geshwiler

For the AJC

As a career educator, Dr. Hugh Kinard prized the rare teachable moment.

A year ago, he wrote an op-ed article for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution expressing his profound gratitude to be alive to witness the 2008 presidential election and the peaceful transfer of power from one party to another.

“As I look back on my almost 82 years,” he wrote, “I can think of few events that have presented a more significant learning opportunity for the world ... what a demonstration of effective democratic government and its superiority over anything else around!”

To be sure, Dr. Kinard had, after his retirement, become an active Cobb County Democrat and was pleased with the 2008 election results. However, the point of his article, said his daughter, Carole Horton of Kennesaw, was that the campaign had generated unusual excitement among young people around the world, and that was an opportunity to be seized to promote democracy globally.

Dr. Hugh Street Kinard, 82, of Smyrna, died Wednesday at Tranquility Hospice of gastric cancer. His memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Marietta First Baptist Church chapel. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Marietta First Baptist Church English School, 148 Church St., Marietta, GA 30060. Medford-Peden Funeral Home & Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

Born and reared in Mississippi, Dr. Kinard earned his Ph.D. in education at the University of Southern Mississippi. At one time he was one of the few white administrators at an all-black school in that state; he was a curriculum coordinator in Nichols County.

Moving to metro Atlanta in 1972, he became assistant principal at Marietta Junior High. Three years later he moved on to Buford City Schools, where he was curriculum coordinator, then assistant superintendent until his retirement in 1986.

Dr. Kinard thought it was essential that teachers work continuously to sharpen their skills, and he founded a chapter in Kennesaw of a teachers honorary society, Phi Delta Kappa, which shares that aim. The chapter recently created a scholarship in Dr. Kinard’s name to award to a teacher to help enhance his or her training. “With typical modesty, Dr. Kinard declined the honor,” said the chapter president, Joanne Lee of Marietta, “but we board members told him he was outvoted.”

The Marietta First Baptist Church’s English School was another of Dr. Kinard’s favorite activities in retirement. For 15 years he taught a diverse group of newcomers to America the language and other skills they needed to succeed here.

“He was so patient and effective with our students,” said a fellow teacher, Jean Pervis of Kennesaw. “He always brought things like flowers or food to start conversations and expand their vocabularies. I remember one elderly Chinese man who refused promotion to a more advanced class because he thought so much of Dr. Kinard.”

Six years ago Dr. Kinard joined the Cobb County Democrats. A former chairman, John Dooley of Marietta, remembered him as professorial in bearing. “Despite his reserve, though, he would be the first to welcome newcomers to our meetings. He pitched in on our phone banks and went door to door canvassing prospective voters. He joined us not out of any partisan zeal, but his own personal belief structure.”

Survivors include his wife, Dorothy Kinard of Smyrna; another daughter, Laurel Kinard of Suwanee; a son, Noel Kinard of Marietta; a brother, Gene Kinard of Marion, Miss.; and two grandchildren.