Michael Patrick Kenny, 69, passed away peacefully with his wife, Sharon, at his side, on March 13, 2020.
Michael, a son of Peter and Helen Cahill Kenny, grew up in New Brunswick and Sayreville. He graduated from St. Joseph HS in Metuchen and went to the University of Oklahoma to play Division I basketball. A knee injury ended his athletic career; he returned home and graduated from Rutgers College with Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude honors in English. He completed an alternate route certification program while teaching at Middlesex County College. Michael spent his entire career as an English teacher at East Brunswick HS, retiring in 2007. He instilled strong writing and analytic skills in his students, many of whom returned after graduation to tell him how well he prepared them for college. He ran the largest Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey for high school students, bringing in some of the nation's most renowned poets. Michael loved teaching and going to plays, athletic events, recitals and even weddings of his students. He was an assistant varsity basketball coach at East Brunswick HS and later basketball and baseball coach at Joyce Kilmer School in Milltown.




