Charity ride tragedy: Durham man mourned after cycling death: 'He was always smiling'

NEWINGTON — Bob Kennedy of Durham, an accomplished ornithologist, bicyclist and marathon runner , is being mourned following his death after sustaining a head injury in a Seacoast charity cycling ride Saturday. He was 76.

Kennedy was riding in the New Hampshire Bikes & Beers event, hosted by Portsmouth’s Cisco Brewers, when an accident occurred on Little Bay Road, according to Newington Police Chief Michael Bilodeau. He said police are investigating the accident.

Newington police received a report at 10:14 a.m. Saturday that a rider wearing a helmet had fallen and hurt his head, according to Bilodeau. The town's police and fire personnel responded to find Kennedy being tended to by other riders and spectators. He later succumbed to his injuries at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, the chief said.

“We’re not fully sure what the cause of the accident was, whether it was road conditions, his age, or whether there were other bicyclists abreast with him. We’re still trying to figure all that out,” Bilodeau said Monday.

The accident occurred as Kennedy was riding northbound while heading down a hill, Bilodeau said.

'He was a really good person'

Friends, former colleagues and organizations Kennedy was involved with during his professional conservation and ornithology career, and through volunteerism, are grieving his passing.

Kennedy ran nearly 300 marathons, completing races in all 50 states multiple times. His finished the Boston Marathon several times, most recently in April this year, running the 26.2-mile course in just under 4 hours and 50 minutes, 14th place in the men's 75-79 age group.

Kennedy was president of the New England 65+ Runners Club. His first marathon — the Flying Pig Marathon — was in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2001, according to a past interview with Seacoastonline.

His love for running was on full display through his work as former race director for the Great Bay Stewards, a nonprofit supporting the Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Kennedy was a key figure in organizing the Seacoast’s first ultramarathon, the Great Bay 55K Challenge, and the stewards’ annual five kilometer race — its largest fundraiser.

Great Bay Stewards Executive Director Allison Knab remembers her late colleague as a devoted volunteer. He ran the 55-kilometer race around Great Bay, inviting staff from the reserve and the stewards to join him at points throughout the course to run with him.

Knab also praised Kennedy’s leading efforts to band osprey around Great Bay.

“He was one of those people you felt lucky you got to meet,” she said Monday. “He was a special person. It's a really huge loss for a lot of communities around here. He was a really good person.”

Kennedy had since stepped back as the stewards’ race director, according to Knab. The 5K event will take place in the fall, and she expects it will be held in Kennedy’s memory.

“The race is going to be in October so it’s going to be hard to do it without him, but we want to make him proud,” Knab added.

Kennedy beloved and praised for work in ornithology

The Durham resident was the former director of natural science at the Maria Mitchell Association in Nantucket, a nonprofit museum where he worked for nine years. He is credited with starting the organization’s barn owl program in 2001.

Kennedy, a 50-year ornithologist, served as a senior research fellow at the Maria Mitchell Association in recent years since leaving his post.

The Maria Mitchell Association shared a tribute to Kennedy on its website and on social media on Sunday.

“He helped to promote the installation of osprey poles on the island - one of his favorites - and under his tenure, he helped to create more than seventy barn owl boxes on the island, nurturing the owl population to where it is today,” the post reads. “Our thoughts are with Bob’s wife, Anne, their daughter Reeve, and their son, Forrest, as well as their grandchildren and family.”

Published by Oxford University Press, Kennedy’s “A Guide to the Birds of the Philippines” was released in 2000 and covers over 570 species of birds known to reside in the more than 7,600 islands that make up the Philippines. Filipino media outlets have previously reported that as part of a crew of Peace Corps volunteers in 1972, Kennedy studied the endangered Philippine eagle and designed a program to help the species survive, efforts that have been lauded for decades.

“In 1977, one of the Peace Corps volunteers, Robert S. Kennedy returned to the Philippines to study the eagle further,” the Philippine Eagle Foundation states . “He also successfully lobbied for the Office of the President to change the species' name from ‘Monkey-eating Eagle’ to its present name, the ‘Philippine Eagle.’”

Neighbor and peer recalls Kennedy's kindness

Great Bay Stewards vice chairperson Deborah Alberts has been a neighbor of Kennedy and his family on Riverview Road in Durham for years. Last Friday, before the Bikes & Beers charity ride, she saw Kennedy riding his tractor with his grandchildren at their family’s residence.

“He was smiling, so happy and peaceful and one with the world,” Alberts recalled.

Calling Kennedy a loving husband and “the best of neighbors,” she said her friend would often assist other Riverview Road homeowners with projects, walk his dogs multiple times daily with his wife, run around the neighborhood and regularly check in on Alberts’ bird boxes on her property.

Kennedy's death is a “devastating loss,” Alberts said.

“I think Bob is probably one of the kindest men I’ve ever known. (He was) generous with his time … He was always there for everybody,” she said. “He always had a smile. He’s too hard to encapsulate. He’s just too big to put into a paragraph."

Police seeking information on tragedy

The Bikes & Beers event on Saturday offered 15-mile, 30-mile and 45-mile routes through the Seacoast and into Strafford County. It started and ended at Cisco Brewers at Pease Tradeport, followed by a beer festival with live music and a charity raffle. The Portsmouth event benefitted the Bike-Walk Alliance of New Hampshire and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, according to organizers.

Representatives of Cisco Brewers did not respond to requests for comment Monday.

Newington police are asking riders from the Bikes & Beers event and attendees with more information about the accident to call investigating officer Brian Whyte at (603) 431-5461.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Charity ride tragedy: Durham man mourned after cycling death: 'He was always smiling'