STONE MILLS — Described as a community pillar, Clarence Kennedy was a school principal, beef farmer and the Warden of Lennox & Addington County. He died March 13, after a brief battle with cancer and a three-month tenure as county warden. He was 68.
Kennedy wore a great number of hats. A farmer with a cow-calf operation, he took over his parent’s farm in 1985 when he moved to Stone Mills, northwest of Kingston, with his wife, Rose Marie, and their three children, Amy, Ted, and Lana. He ran the 55 head cow-calf, 400-acre farm with his son, Ted. He was also an educator with the Lennox and Addington County board of education, spending most of his 33-year career there as a principal. He got more involved with the farm when he retired from the board in 2000.
He also got more involved in the community. “Ted could always tell how many people he’d waved at when he cut the hay,” said Rose Marie. “He could look at the pieces Clarence missed while he was waving.”
He began to fulfill a lifelong love for politics in 2003, when he became a member of the township of Stone Mills committee of adjustment, which he served on until 2010, when he was elected councillor for Camden ward. He was elected Reeve of the township in 2014.
Paul Burns, friend and fellow farmer, recalls a man in the prime of his life. “He was doing things he didn’t used to have time for.”
The two men sat on an insurance company board and Burns recalls more than a few times when the board was stuck with a contentious issue. “He had a nice, quiet manner of arranging the strengths and weaknesses of each position. Never rushed into a quick decision. His honesty, integrity, and fairness was always the same.”
“He was a pillar of our community,” Burns said. “We’ve lost a pillar.”
