Kenn Glenn
Kenneth Glenn was born June 6, 1920 in Portland, Oregon. From an early age, Kenn knew he wanted to get an education and he wanted to be an artist. The first in his family to earn a college degree, Kenn earned a Bachelor’s Degree and Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at the University of Tacoma. He later moved to New York and attended Syracuse University to pursue a PhD, and traveled to Italy to study sculpture. In Syracuse, Kenn met and married his second wife, Joan Ormsbee. They migrated first to Chicago then to Southern California, where Kenn was hired to teach at a new college, Long Beach State College. There, he began teaching in Design and later started the Sculpture Department. He taught at CSULB for over thirty years.
In the early 60’s, Kenn took a sabbatical to Italy and Israel where he learned about international sculpture symposiums. When he returned, he persuaded the College President to allow him to coordinate a symposium on the Long Beach campus. In the summer of ’65, the first International Sculpture Symposium was held in the United States, with eight well known outdoor sculptors from all over the world coming together to each design and build sculptures throughout the campus. The symposium created a partnership between artists, academia and industry that was unique for its time. The sculptures still stand today, and in 2015 the university coordinated a 50-year commemoration and a book called, “Far-sited”. The symposium was one of Kenn’s legacies along with the tremendous volume of sculptures he produced.
In addition to teaching, Kenn had a prolific career making, showing and selling sculpture. He and Joan were passionate art collectors and active in the local art community. They loved traveling to Europe, Hawaii, Palm Springs and Mexico, and did so throughout their life together, first with their children then later on their own.
Kenn’s Parkinson’s Disease never slowed him down; he continued to sculpt for many years and traveled with Joan until the day he died. Kenn was predeceased by his son, Gregory. He was survived by his daughters from his first marriage, Sandra and Bonita, his wife Joan, daughter Kim, grandson Woody and his sister Marcy. Kenn passed away on October 1, 1996 in Irvine, CA and was later buried at sea surrounded by family, friends and former students.
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Remembering Kenn Glenn
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