Eulsum & Charles Kennedy ’38

Eulsum & Charles Kennedy ’38

Charles Kennedy, a member of Deerfield’s Class of 1938, came to Deerfield from Buffalo, New York. He played cornet in the band and competed on Mr. Boyden’s soccer, hockey, and lacrosse teams. He went on to earn a chemistry degree with honors at Princeton while managing the lacrosse team and helping found the (still extant) a cappella singing group known as the “Nassoons.” An MD degree at the University of Rochester and two years of Navy service led Charles to the emerging field of pediatric neurology. He practiced first at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and then had a long, illustrious career with the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

Eulsum was born in North Korea, worked at the American Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, for 12 years, and then immigrated to the U.S. in 1962. She became a successful businesswoman in Washington, D.C., which is where she met Charles. They were happily married for 45 years. In recent decades they had enjoyed retirement in Maine. Eulsum was an accomplished painter and sculptor. Her work adorned the walls of their home as well as her studio and gallery in Freeport, Maine.

The Kennedys appreciated the importance of secondary education, and both had a particular love for Deerfield Academy. Charles always maintained that the independence, work ethic, and love of learning he developed at Deerfield served him well throughout his adult life. Both of the Kennedys believed that access to such formative and horizon-opening education should be available to all students, regardless of their families’ resources.

After Charles’ passing in 2015, Eulsum moved to a retirement community not far from Bowdoin College, where she enjoyed auditing undergraduate art history classes. Eulsum took solace, after Charles’ death, in her art, her friends, and her love for the beautiful coast of Maine. Deerfield staff kept in touch with regular calls and visits. Perry Hamm ’17, a recent Deerfield graduate then attending Bowdoin College, visited Eulsum regularly to help assuage her loneliness.

After Eulsum’s death in December 2020, the Academy followed the Kennedys’ wishes and created the Charles Kennedy ’38 and Eulsum Kennedy Fund with the proceeds from Deerfield charitable gift annuities they had funded—and which had returned income to them through the years. The Kennedy Fund provides financial aid for students “with a true passion for learning, with a preference for those whose promise has been compromised by adverse conditions or difficult circumstances in life.”

When the Kennedys’ executor called in early 2021 with the news that Deerfield was one of the main beneficiaries of the Kennedys’ estate, Deerfield officials were deeply honored to add the bequest to the Kennedy Fund—making it one of Deerfield’s largest endowed financial aid funds.

Multiple members of Deerfield’s Advancement Office had the pleasure of getting to know Charles and Eulsum over the years. Their warmth, charm, wit, and obvious affection for one another brought joy to all who knew them. Their relationship with Deerfield and their generous estate gift will have a profound impact on the Academy and its students for generations to come.