A dynamo who knows every aspect of education - that's how one former colleague describes Ray Kennedy, who retires this year after 33 years of teaching. Born in Birr, Co Offaly, in 1942, his family moved to Dublin when he was five. He attended several national schools in the city before he went to Marian College, Ballsbridge. He studied maths, Irish, engineering and astronomy at TCD.
His first teaching job was in 1966 as senior mathematics teacher in Bertrand and Rutland High School in Dublin's Eccles Street. He moved to Templeogue College in 1970 and introduced computer studies to the curriculum four years later. He was an advising examiner to the Department of Education for 10 years from 1974 and also worked for the Civil Service Commission as an advising examiner.
Kennedy became principal of Templeogue College in 1987. This year he retires as principal, leaving the school with a student population of approximately 700. In his term as principal he has overseen the building of a major extension to the school, the introduction of Transition Year and the addition of German, applied maths and music to the curriculum.
He helped bring about "massive changes in the maths syllabus" in the 1960s, according to one colleague. "He has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the system and the people in it. He is a teacher to his fingertips." Colleagues comment on his wit, modesty and ability to delegate. "He developed and groomed all of us."
Kennedy was president of the ASTI between 1983 and 1984. He was a founding member of the Secondary Schools Principals Association of Ireland and was its president from 1993 to 1995.
