THEODORE A. KIENSTRA, JR. RECEIVES THE LUKE RIGBY AWARD Theodore Kienstra received the Luke Rigby Award at the Abbey Society Dinner on Saturday, November 13, 2010. He is a member of the very first class of the Priory School, the Class of 1960. After the Priory School, Ted took his undergraduate degree at Saint Louis University and then started full time at Kienstra Supply Company, Inc. Kienstra Enterprises, Inc., which was formed in 1986, is involved with the management of numerous ready mix companies in Missouri and Illinois. From 1996 to 2004, Ted was an owner and managing member of Continental Cement Company. Currently, he holds the position of Chairman of Kienstra Enterprises. During these years of his professional career, Ted has served as a member or officer of numerous boards, associations and agencies, including the boards of several banks, the Saint Louis County Industrial Development Authority, and the Missouri Concrete Association, of which
International Visitors This fall, bonds that have been forged with our Chilean Benedictine kin were strengthened and the budding relationship between Priory and LuHe International School in China got another boost when Priory welcomed some delightfully friendly and enthusiastic visitors from both countries. María Isabel Baeza of San Benito School and Jaime Lira of San Anselmo School in Santiago, Chile, are members of a thriving lay Benedictine community called the Manquehue Apostolic Movement. In recent years small groups of teachers and students have trekked to St. Louis to immerse themselves in Benedictine education Priory style. In turn, our boys have been going to their schools to learn about Tutoria and to get spoiled by Chile’s renowned hospitality. The Chileans’ visit overlapped a bit with that of two teachers from the LuHe International School in Beijing. Nana Gu and Fangfang Wang threw themselves wholeheartedly into Priory life. They attended many math and science classes, cheered on the Rebel football and soccer teams, participated in assemblies, asked and answered hundreds of questions, and visited Priory families. The visits were certainly enriching experiences for one and all.
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he has been Chairman. Ted and his wife Kit were blessed with four daughters, Josie, Chris, Kathy and Kim, and they are now blessed with 14 grandchildren. Ted’s oldest grandsons, Cory and Ryan Lenz, both attended Priory, graduating in 2006 and 2009, with Cory being the first grandson of an alumnus to graduate from the School. Now two more of Ted’s grandsons, Colin Bruns ’11 and Sam Bruns ’13, attend Priory. Ted and Kit, as members of Saint Anselm Parish, have always been closely associated with the monastic community. Ted was serving on the Alumni Association Board when his grandsons entered the School and since then he has been closely associated with the Abbey and School in their activities and works, in 2004 becoming a member of the Saint Louis Abbey Society Board of Directors, and also a member of the Saint Louis Priory School Advisory Group, in the latter capacity serving as a member of the Advisors’ Facilities Committee and for a time as Chair of the Nominating Committee. It was during these years that the Abbey embarked on the large-scale School facilities projects of the expansion of the Junior School Building and of the renovation of existing athletic facilities and the construction of new ones up to state-of-the-art standards. Ted’s expertise in both construction and finance have been invaluable to us in executing these projects and in working out the ways to finance them in a difficult economic period, while