From his earliest days on the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District board more than 40 years ago, Hardy Gene Kuykendall showed an ability to defuse controversy and find common ground.
“It was a special skill that he had,” said his wife, Billie.
Mr. Kuykendall's leadership as president of the school board typified a life of community service.
“Hardy was the kind of individual people instinctively followed,” said Gordon Austin, former executive director of the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce. “He was a good speaker, and you could always count on an honest response from Hardy. He held a leadership positions in all the organizations in which he was involved.”
Mr. Kuykendall, a retired insurance executive and former La Mesa councilman, died Monday, June 19, 2006 at his home in Rancho San Diego. He was 81.
The cause of death was congestive heart failure, said his son, Jack.
In 1974, five years after completing his four-year term on the La Mesa-Spring Valley school board, Mr. Kuykendall handily won a seat on the La Mesa City Council. He expressed an interest in running for mayor in the 1982 election but decided against it because of the demands of his business.
Mr. Kuykendall followed his father, also named Hardy, into the insurance business in 1948. The company, originally San Diego County Mutual and later Sierra Mutual, became Allied Insurance after a merger in 1975.
Mr. Kuykendall oversaw the development of Allied Plaza, a concrete-and-glass structure on Alvarado Road in La Mesa, in 1983.
He retired in 1990, two years after suffering a mild stroke, but remained active in community and church work.
In 1996, representing the United Methodist Church, he took a four-week trip to South Africa to help build a parsonage.
“He was a man who believed and practiced something very rare these days: the notion that church, family, business and community are all of the same fabric,” his son said.
Hardy Gene Kuykendall was born Jan. 10, 1925, in Lead Hill, Ark., and moved to California with his family during the Depression.
After graduating from Hoover High School in 1942, he joined the Marine Corps. He met his wife on a blind date while attending officer training classes at Purdue University in Lafayette, Ind. They were married in 1946 after he was discharged.
Mr. Kuykendall earned a bachelor's degree at Occidental College after World War II. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War, serving in a tank battalion in the 1st Marine Division.
At the battle of Chosin Reservoir in North Korea, where Communist forces heavily outnumbered the Marines in freezing weather, Mr. Kuykendall suffered frostbite. He developed pneumonia and was flown to a hospital in Japan to recover.
After leaving active duty as a captain, he resumed his career in the insurance business. He settled in La Mesa in 1953 and became a fixture in the La Mesa Kiwanis Club, which once honored him as its Man of the Year; the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce; and the board of the Grossmont Hospital Foundation.
In 1975, he was honored as La Mesan of the Year by the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce.
He returned to Hoover High as a mentor/tutor and served in his later years as a “class grandpa” to pupils at Lemon Avenue Elementary School.
“In April, despite failing health, he took his family on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera to celebrate his 60th wedding anniversary,” his son said. “The only time he left the ship was a brief shopping tour in Mazatlan to buy souvenirs for the kids at Lemon Avenue Elementary.
“A few weeks later, his daughter Linda took him to the school one last time so he could present the gifts and say goodbye.”
Survivors include his wife, Billie; daughters, Linda Jean Hollander of Taos, N.M., and Jill Kuykendall of Granite Bay; son, Jack Kuykendall; brother, Bob Kuykendall; and three granddaughters.
A celebration of life was held at 11 a.m. July 1 at Foothills United Methodist Church in La Mesa. Donations are suggested to Sharp Grossmont Hospice or the church.
(Thanks to Jack Williams, staff writer, San Diego Union Tribune)
THE LINEAGE:
(Hardy Gene Kuykendall was the son of Hardy Roy and Claudia Rae Ratchford Kykendall, grandson of William Thomas and Minnie Viola McCasland Ratchford, Jr. and great grandson of Thmas Jesse and Mary Stanley Thomas McCasland. Mary Stanley was the first child of James Clark "Muck" and Mary Elizabeth Josephine Lawrence Thomas. James Clark was the fourth child of James, Jr. and Margaret Ethridge Thomas. James Jr. was the sixth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)
