Ellen Lee Kennedy Passes Away at 80
Ellen Lee Kennedy, an internationally recognized scholar of political theory and comparative constitutional law, died peacefully on September 22, 2026, in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, after a long illness at the age of 80, reported.
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kennedy graduated from Knoxville Catholic High School in 1964. She pursued her undergraduate education at Trinity College in Washington, D.C.—now known as Trinity Washington University—before completing further studies at the University of Indiana. At Indiana, she worked alongside Jean Kirkpatrick, who was America’s first woman Ambassador to the United Nations. Kennedy subsequently earned her Ph.D. from the London School of Economics under the supervision of political theorist Michael Oakeshott.
Academic Career and Scholarship on Carl Schmitt
Kennedy built an extensive academic career spanning multiple countries and institutions. Before joining the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, she taught in England at the University of York and the University of Manchester.
As a scholar, Kennedy earned an international reputation as an expert on the work of German jurist Carl Schmitt. Through her translations and academic publications, she made Schmitt’s complex theories accessible to a broad intellectual audience. Her scholarship on constitutional law drew global attention, and she also published a monograph on the Bundesbank, the German Central Bank, which led European monetary policy-makers to consult her expertise.
Personal Life and Commemoration Services in Knoxville
Outside of her academic pursuits, Kennedy maintained a variety of distinct personal interests. She competed in three-gaited American saddle horse riding and sustained a lifelong fondness for dogs, particularly Boston Terriers, which she later showed and bred in Philadelphia. She also enjoyed classical and early music, opera, show tunes, and the music of Stephen Foster, alongside maintaining a reputation as a cook, a connoisseur of German dry Rieslings, and an owner of a white Volvo convertible.
Kennedy will be interred in Knoxville Calvary Cemetery, resting near her parents, Martin Kennedy and Mattie Jane Kennedy, as well as her sister, Mabel Ellen Barbish, and Mabel Ellen’s husband, “Moose” Barbish. A funeral mass is scheduled for Friday, November 20, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, located at 414 West Vine Avenue in Knoxville, Tennessee. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the Murphy Ruffenach Brian W. Donnelly Funeral Home.
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