Samuel Kennard

Samuel Mummey Kennard (1842-1916) was a St. Louis, Missouri, businessman and Confederate Army officer. He was active in civic affairs and had an elementary school named after him.

Early life

Kennard was born in Lexington, Kentucky, on January 11, 1842, the son of John Kennard and Rebecca Owings.

He was educated in Lexington schools and moved to St. Louis at the age of 15 with his father, who established a carpet business. At war's end, he returned to St. Louis to become a partner in his father's business. After the elder Kennard's death in 1872, the firm was incorporated under the name J. Kennard & Sons Carpet Company.

Legacy

Bequests

An active member of St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church, He also left money to Jewish Associated Charities, the first bequest it had ever received from a non-Jew, according to the St. Louis Jewish Voice newspaper.

Elementary school

A new city school campus at 5032 Potomac Street was named in his honor and dedicated on the evening of January 22, 1930, before an audience of some six hundred people. It replaced an older portable structure at Kingshighway and Arsenal Street, also named for him. The new school had 18 classrooms and a kindergarten.

A portrait of Kennard, painted by local artist Albert Meyer, was given to the school by his six children and unveiled by one of his grandchildren on April 17, 1931. It was said that the family had "generously given handsome volumes and sets to the school library." On March 16, 2023, the school was rededicated as Betty Wheeler Classical Junior Academy, in honor of the founder of Metro Academic and Classical High School, whose educational vision impacted thousands in the St. Louis community and beyond.