Eddie C. Kennedy

Eddie C. Kennedy was inducted into the inaugural College of Applied Human Sciences Hall of Fame in the fall of 2025. He was previously inducted into the College of Human Resources and Education Hall of Fame in 2006.

Kennedy earned his doctorate in education from Indiana University in 1951, with an emphasis in elementary education, English, and educational psychology. He received a master’s degree in English and education from George Peabody College for Teachers (now Vanderbilt University) in 1948 and a bachelor’s degree in elementary and secondary education from Glenville State College in 1947. His teaching career began in a one-room schoolhouse in Gilmer County in 1931 and was briefly interrupted by his service in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.

In 1953, Kennedy joined West Virginia University as director of elementary student teaching in the College of Human Resources and Education. He later chaired the Department of Elementary Education, served as acting dean in 1958, and spent more than a decade as director of the WVU Reading Center, which he founded. He retired in 1976 and was granted professor emeritus status.

Kennedy was a noted scholar in reading education. He authored 14 textbooks, wrote and presented 90 televised programs on reading instruction, and received numerous professional honors, including WVU’s Outstanding Teacher Award in 1965. The West Virginia Reading Association annually presents an award in his name to honor outstanding educators in literacy instruction. Kennedy also established an endowed scholarship at WVU. 

Kennedy passed away in 2009.