Their only child, Kevin Jr., died in 2011 after he was punched in the face during a fight the night of July 4 on the shores of Lake Michigan in Long Beach, Ind. Kevin, 17, died in a hospital two days later.
The brutal punch took his life but won't claim his memory or his legacy, his father said.
This week, the couple, who live in Chicago's Beverly community, announced that most of a $1 million settlement of their lawsuit over their son's death will be given to charity, including $500,000 to Mount Carmel High School, where Kevin Jr. attended.
"This is something we have to live with for the rest of our lives. But doing this, giving money away, it makes us feel pretty good that something good came out of Kevin's time on this earth," his father said.
Legal costs, mostly attorney fees, in the three-year court fight, amounted to about $350,000, leaving the couple with $650,000. The Kennellys decided to donate it all to Mount Carmel; St. Barnabas School, where Kevin went to grade school; a church and the scholarship fund named for their son.
"It wasn't our money," Kevin said. "It was the price they put on Kevin's life."
At Mount Carmel, where Kevin Jr. played baseball and soccer and would have been a senior in September 2011, the Rev. Tony Mazurkiewicz, the school president, said the use of the generous gift has not been determined.
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