Soon after, a turn point in her life came when she was chosen to study Japanese during World War II at the University of Colorado, all expenses paid by the government. The US Government was in need of individuals competent in languages. After much consideration, Kennedy decided her parents needed her more at home for financial reasons. She therefore took a teaching job at Warren Consolidated High School, her alma mater, teaching Spanish, French, Latin and English. She has always wondered how her life would have been different if she had chosen to go to Occupied Japan instead.

Kennedy then married and she and her husband, Ed, moved to Dayton, Ohio, where she taught Latin and English while he continued in the Air Foree. Upon his discharge, they moved to Long Island, New York, where she first taught elementary school while her husband attended college.

When Ed graduated, Kennedy and her husband moved to Prince George’s County, Maryland, where Ed had obtained a position in the Washington, DC, area. Kennedy continued teaching elementary school in Prince George’s County, earning a Master’s Degree in Elementary Education and later her doctorate in Foreign Language Education at the University of Maryland, College Park. Even though the elementary school curriculum at the time did not include foreign languages, Kennedy started an after-school Spanish Club in each of the elementary schools where she taught.

After a stint of teaching elementary school in College Park, Dr. Kennedy was tapped in 1959 to be the first supervisor of Prince George’s County’s new foreign language program, her position for the next 32 years. Over this time, she raised her son; received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Maryland-College Park, cementing a 50-yearrelationship; spurred innovations in foreign language teaching; and supervised hundreds of teachers.

In 1985, Dr. Kennedy was successful in starting Prince Georges County’s first language immersion program — the second ever in the country — at Bladensburg High school. In 2002 it moved to Seabrook and became the Robert Goddard French Immersion school, a K-8 school sharing the building with Robert Goddard Montessori School. In the fall of 2014, the school was moved to its current location in Greenbelt, the former Greenbelt Middle School, and renamed the Dora Kennedy French Immersion school in honor of Dr. Kennedy

Despite obstacles from skeptics in its early days, Kennedy’s original language immersion program has thrived, performing highly on both American standardized tests and the Diplôme d’études en langue française (DELF), a proficiency test for French language learners. It remains the second oldest total French immersion program in the United States.

Upon retirement, she became adjunct faculty at the University of Maryland at College Park in the College of Education, helping to train new teachers, until the end of 2008. She was one of the founders of the Senior University Program there, for which she designed and instructed language courses. She also served on the Community Advisory Council to the Prince George’s County Board of Education and was active in College Park community affairs and numerous other professional organizations.