Elizabeth Kennan Burns, 87

Published 10:17 am Monday, July 21, 2025

Elizabeth Kennan Burns, educator, corporate director, preservationist, and farmer, died peacefully at her home on Cambus-Kenneth Farm near Danville, Kentucky on July 18, 2025. She was 87.

The only child of Englishman Frank Topham and Henrietta Jackson of Maryland’s Eastern Shore, Liz (the name she always preferred) was born in Philadelphia, grew up in northern New Jersey, and graduated summa cum laude from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts in 1960. Awarded a Marshall Scholarship, she received an MA from St. Hilda’s, Oxford. As part of her PhD thesis at the University of Washington, she translated St. Bernard’s De Consideratione, a volume which remains in print after nearly sixty years. While at Oxford, she married fellow Marshall Scholar, Robert Kennan, who died tragically only a few years later during routine surgery. They had one child, Frank Alexander Kennan, born in 1967. The first woman and the first Protestant (a cradle Episcopalian) to teach History at The Catholic University of America, she eventually became Director of Medieval and Byzantine Studies, and was always pleasantly startled when the undergraduate men in black robes stood at attention as she entered the classroom. Named the 15th president of her alma mater. Mount Holyoke, the first of the Seven Sister Colleges, she served from 1978 to 1995 and championed women’s education with energy and vision. At the same time, she served as President of Five Colleges, Inc. (Amherst, the University of Massachusetts, Hampshire College, Smith, and Mount Holyoke). Honorary degrees followed from Oberlin, Trinity College Connecticut, Smith, Amherst and other institutions. Additional contributions to education included serving as an Overseer of the Folger Shakespeare Library, trustee of Centre College in Kentucky, and a decade on the board of The University of Notre Dame. While at Mount Holyoke, she raised funds to rebuild the college’s town center, which had been destroyed by fire. Always aiming for the highest quality, she turned to Boston-based and internationally-renowned architect, Graham Gund.

Also active in the corporate world, Elizabeth became lead director of New England’s largest utility. Northeast Utilities (now Eversource), board member of NYNEX/Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), trustee of the Putnam Mutual Funds in Boston, director of clothing retailer Talbots, Inc., and director of Hardscuffle, Inc., an insurance holding company based in Louisville, Kentucky. Contributions to preservation and conservation included serving as a trustee of the Trustees of the Reservation in Massachusetts, the nation’s first non profit organization of its kind, board member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Chairman of the Board of Kentucky’s Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill at a critical moment in its history. The team she helped assemble is continuing to restore the excellence of that National Historic Landmark. The farm she shares with her husband, Michael, is itself an award-winning preservation achievement. Dating from 1790, with eleven structures on the National Register and all its acreage protected by a conservation easement, it has been meticulously restored and includes beautiful gardens designed (and largely planted) by Liz. It must be a one-of-a-kind honor to breed and own a best-of-breed winner at Westminster (a Kerry Blue terrier) as well as a graded stakes-winning mare at Churchill Downs (named after her mother, Henrietta Topham). And for Liz, it was an equal joy to co-author with friend, Jill Ker Conway, former president of Smith College, the mystery novel, Overnight Float, published in 2000 under the pseudonym Clare Munnings.

Liz was predeceased by her son, Alex, who had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy as an infant. He lived his entire life with his mother, who, with laser-like commitment, assured his safety and comfort until his death two years ago, at the age of 55. Alex’s primary caregiver at Cambus-Kenneth, JoAnn Metcalf, has provided the same exemplary service to his mother over recent years. Liz is survived by her husband, Michael, for whom she has been his true north across four decades. The many and varied accomplishments of Elizabeth Kennan Burns were rooted in profound faith, boundless generosity, and an unwavering belief that we are called to love our neighbor and serve the common good. And to do it with kindness and good cheer.

A funeral mass will be held at Trinity Episcopal Church, Danville, KY, on Saturday, July 26, at 11:00 am. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Trinity Church, Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, or the Danville-Boyle County Humane Society.