Kindell taught English for 25 years — four in Monroe and 21 in Middletown.
Former student Clarence Page, class of 1965 at Middletown High School, flew in from Washington, D.C., to wish his English teacher a happy birthday. Page said he credits Kindell for sparking his journalism career when he began writing for the high school newspaper, the Middletonian. Page is now a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist with the Chicago Tribune.
“She put the bug in my ear,” Page said. “She asked had I considered this as a career. I realized I could do this and never looked back.”
Shortly after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1989, Page said he went back to his old high school yearbooks and found an autograph from Kindell with the message, “Remember me when you win your first Pulitzer.”
“I’m delighted she’s still around and I can say thank you,” Page said.
Kindell, who recently moved to Mount Pleasant Retirement Village in Monroe, said except for some numbness in her hands, she feels great coming into year 99 of life.
“It’s wonderful he’d come down here,” Kindell said of Page. “He was an outstanding student. I was fortunate to have such great students.”
Along with Page, several of Kindell’s former students came to the church Sunday to wish her a happy birthday.
Margie Cox Homan, of Middletown, from the class of 1971 at MHS, said she took Kindell’s “infamous” creative writing course during her senior year and also wrote for a creative writing journal that Kindell funded for students.
“She was a forward thinker,” Cox Homan said. “She’s one of a kind.”
Kindell was the longest-serving member on the choir at First Presbyterian when she retired this year after 58 years. She’s been an active member of the church, involved in the Presbyterian Women’s group and having made two mission trips to Russia in the past.
“The church is a big part of her family,” said Joyce Zigler, director of music ministries.
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