In Memoriam teacher. She worked closely with her students, going over their examinations or papers with a fine-tooth comb, writing pages and pages of comments and spending hours and hours of her time with them. At the peak of her career she was an important model for many government majors, partly because they knew that, while demanding, she was also supportive and fair. And while she could be very serious, she also had a rich, wry sense of humor. As one of her former students wrote recently:

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... most favorite memory of Cecelia Kenyon is the lecture she gave on Thomas Jefferson in which she admitted to stealing two bricks from Monticello on one of her pilgrimages there. This admission she made with a conspiratorial grin and defiant toss of her head in front of over fifty Saturday morning Smith students. Before that moment I felt mostly awe in her presence. After that moment my awe was tempered by the warmth of her admission. The steel trap mind was wedded to a very human heart. Cecelia Kenyon has been, and remains, my most important memory of four years at Smith. Her influence on my life has reached far beyond the information she imparted.