Educator known for supportive attitude

10/13/2002

Rosemary McKenna, a teacher at several area schools and assistant principal at the former McAuley High School in Toledo, died Thursday of pneumonia at Heartland of Perrysburg. She was 80.

Mrs. McKenna, of Toledo, taught at St. Catherine and Little Flower elementary schools in Toledo, St. Andrew in Columbus, and St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Ann Arbor.

“She had an extraordinarily good relationship with her students,” her son, Kevin, said.

In 1972, Mrs. McKenna started teaching home economics at the former McAuley High School, where she became assistant principal.

She was a successful administrator because troubled students responded well to her supportive attitude, her son said.

After leaving McAuley in 1986, she was a substitute teacher at Central Catholic and Penta County Vocational School.

Mrs. McKenna grew up in Cleveland, where she graduated from St. Therese Academy and attended Ursuline College.

Mrs. McKenna later took classes at the University of Toledo and Eastern Michigan University.

She received a degree in fine arts from the former Mary Manse College in Toledo.

Mrs. McKenna belonged to the American Association of University Women, the St. Francis de Sales High School Chappius Society, and Brandywine Country Club, where she played golf.

Her other hobbies included reading mystery novels, cooking, and playing the piano.

She married Richard McKenna in 1943 and he died in 1992.

Surviving are her sons, Kevin and Roy.

Services will be 1 p.m. Tuesday at St. Joan of Arc Church in Toledo.

The body will be in the Coyle Funeral Home, Toledo, after 2 p.m. tomorrow.

The family requests tributes to the McAuley Alumnae Association.