A MAN who shunned the limelight, Gerard (Gus) O'Kennedy, who has died aged 84, preferred to draw others, particularly his students, into it. Education, which he championed as a right for all, was the medium he embraced to make all-comers shine.
He was the youngest of seven children born to Padraig O'Kennedy and his wife Katie (nee Whelan) in Edenderry, Co Offaly.
He certainly lived his credo, moving from the Dominican College in Newbridge to UCD in 1935, where he completed a BA and BComm simultaneously. From there he gained a HDip in 1940, an LLB at UCG in 1945 and an MA in economics also at UCG, in 1949.
Throughout this educational marathon he pursued a career as a teacher of commerce and shorthand. He held a number of temporary teaching posts - in Strabane, Co Tyrone and in Dublin - until he got his first permanent teaching job in Galway in 1942. He remained there until 1950, when he got a job as headmaster of the Abbey Road Vocational School in Navan.
While courting the pretty young clerk at the local Bank Of Ireland, Madge McElherron, he also captained the local golf team, ran the vocational school and started evening classes in the town.
An innovative move in the rural Ireland of de Valera, the classes he established were in subjects such as garage apprenticeship, upholstery, furniture-making and carpet-making.
"He was very aware of the importance of skills like carpet-making to the future of industry in Navan," said his son Philip.
As a teacher he is described as having always had the students interests at heart. Madge McElherron became Mrs O'Kennedy in 1958 and the couple remained in Navan until 1964 when he took up a new position as chief executive officer of Sligo town Vocational Education Committee. In the late 1960s, the Irish Government moved to decentralise education. Gus O'Kennedy felt very strongly that Sligo should have its own Regional Technical College and he put enormous energy into persuading the Department of Education. He was frequently seen boarding the morning train to Dublin for meetings with Dr Finbarr O'Callaghan, assistant secretary at the department. The first class of Sligo RTC began their studies in 1970.
He oversaw the development of the town's college and though he took his retirement in 1980 many felt he never really retired.
People at the college continued to draw on his expertise and advice while he also remained active elsewhere. He founded the Yeats English language schools for foreign students; he was a member of the Yeats Society; he was on the board of governors at St Angela's College and, most famously, he wrote what is now the bible of shorthand students in this country, Gregg Shorthand Simplified.
He is survived by his wife Madge and four sons, Francis, Philip, Niall and Ronan.
Gerard (Gus) O'Kennedy: born 1914; died October, 1999