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Kevin Reynolds, former Art Teacher at Abbey Christian Brothers' Grammar, Newry and founder of NURI Sports has died aged 82.
Reynolds of Watsons Road Newry, passed away peacefully at home 6 May with a quiet burial in Cloughoge to the sound of the harp and the flute.
He spent the seventies and eighties as Head of Art at the Abbey Grammar, 22 years there in total. Kevin, “Burt”, was a well known character in the area and a witty, inspiring mentor to many young people.
A native language speaker, Kevin only learnt English when he moved to the ‘big school’ and didn’t understand what the other children were saying. He grew up in his beloved Ballymote County Sligo, and went on teach with the La Salle Christian Brothers in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore before returning to Ireland and settling in Newry with his wife Teresa, where they had four children: Barry, Niamh, Aoife and Rory.
At the Abbey he cut an artistic and unconventional figure, focused on teaching and learning in creative ways; teaching his pupils to always question the norm and think for themselves, not only with art but in life itself. One past pupil told of how he gave the entire class 100 lines one day for misbehaving in class but didn’t tell them what to write. When asked, he told them to decide for themselves what the line should be. When he tore up every submitted sheet of lines, the curious students asked him why. He told them that he had given them all an opportunity and they wasted it. They could have written Pythagoras' Theorem, or a word they couldn’t spell 100 times and if they had, they would know it by the end of 100 lines. The past pupil said he never forgot this and it taught him to always use his time wisely.
It’s true his pupils learned a lot about art and about life in Kevin’s art room on Courtney Hill. From Rome to Donegal, he encouraged them to see beauty and mastery in the detail around them.
Beyond his work at the Abbey, Kevin founded Nuri Sports in 1976, developing his own unique sliotars and hurls for Gaelic Games. He was known at GAA clubs around the country for his unique products and support for the traditional sports. But he was also an inventor and radical thinker, developing a patent protected design for a synthetic hurl which could take the game into the future. From his time as a young county hurler in Sligo to the end, he was passionate about Gaelic Games, Irish history and culture.
NURI Sports were the first company to make a composite hurley way back in 1976 with a shortage of native ash trees causing concern.
He was an astute political thinker and civil rights activist in the 60s, helping journalists get to marches and report the story. He even ran for SDLP office in 1973. A love of Ireland, justice and fairness always prevailed.
As tough as he was, he always promoted kindness and thoughtfulness. On Christmas mornings when his kids were little, he would first drop off small presents for the children living in the Traveller section of Middle Bank in Newry. His own children never even knew about this until recently.
Above all, he was a loving husband and father and a doting grandfather to Joe, Grace, Oisín, Úna, Ailbe, Illaria, Ída and Nóra. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
Niamh Sweeney (nee Reynolds).
