Richard Kadel

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord!

Richard “Dick” Kadel—or “Mr. Kadel” to his many former students—passed away in St. Petersburg, Florida, his hometown for most of his adult life. His faith in Jesus and the presence of his beloved wife and family singing at his bedside made for a peaceful passing.

Dick was born to William “Bill” and Katharine Naylor Kadel, in Pittsburgh, and moved to Tampa at age 3 where his father was a wartime Army chaplain. After graduating from Orlando’s Boone High in 1957, Dick served three years in the Marines before joining the first class of students at Florida Presbyterian College, now Eckerd College, in St. Pete, where his dad was the founding president. That’s where Dick met another founding freshman, Karen Reynolds, in the college choir. They would be married 63 years. 

A gifted musician and multi-instrumentalist, Dick finished his degree in music education at Florida State and did graduate coursework in choral conducting at Indiana University. Back in St. Pete, he taught music at St. Pete High, formed a community chorus called the Richard Kadel Chorale, and directed the choir at the First Presbyterian Church, where he hired organist Jack Rain in 1969. All four of Dick and Karen’s children were born in St. Pete.

When Dick was hired by Davis & Elkins College in 1974, the family moved to Elkins, West Virginia, where Dick loved the snow and the small-town life. In addition to conducting the college choir, he taught voice and music theory, formed a jazz choir, produced musical theater, tuned pianos, and brought college and community choirs and an orchestra together to perform major choral works for the people of Elkins, like Handel’s Messiah and Verdi’s Requiem. Dick was known to dance with joy and smile from the podium to encourage performers. Some of his students became professional musicians, and many continued to sing in choirs all their lives, later praising Mr. Kadel as the best director they ever had.

Dick and Karen volunteered at the First United Methodist Church of Elkins as youth mentors when their kids were teenagers. Dick’s children, who were also his students and sang in his choirs, remember him as a present, gentle, and fun-loving father whose uncompromising principles and creativity made for a life worth emulating.

The family returned to St. Pete in 1985, and for the next 26 years, Dick taught at Lakewood High School (home of the Spartans), conducting the Spartones choir and teaching guitar and piano plus social studies classes. Students found Mr. Kadel to be a compassionate listener and advisor.

Dick also directed the church choir at Lakewood United Methodist where he took pride in maintaining traditional church music standards. He was adventurous musically, and he loved to swing, but in church, he preferred the old hymns and a soaring pipe organ to contemporary worship practices.

With his mechanical mind and no fear of new tasks, Dick was a skilled handyman, built home additions and furniture, drove a charter bus in retirement, and created a woodworking shop where he taught himself to make intarsia—mosaic wood art of exquisite detail. He and Karen traveled internationally, took cruises and motor-home journeys, and visited their kids and grandkids across the U.S. In their later years at Westminster Suncoast, they sang in the resident chorus and performed duets for their neighbors, often singing an old favorite, “I’ll be loving you always.”

Dick is survived by his wife; his sisters, Pinky (and Duane) Moore and Mary Toigo, of Lake City, Florida; his son Rich and wife, Lisa, of San Diego; daughter Elizabeth and husband, Dekin Dorcas, of Spruce Pine, North Carolina; daughter Stephanie and husband, Jeff Taras, of Ann Arbor, Michigan; son Robert and wife, Stephanie, of Atlanta; grandkids Brooke and Spencer Kadel, Sam and Liam Kadel, Christin Rodahaver (and Bryan Archbold and great-grandson Aiden), Matthew Rodahaver (and Claire), Hope Dorcas (and great-grandkids Norah and Peyton Ellis), McKennah Gow, and Juliette, Chloe, and Kaiya Dorcas. He is preceded in death by his parents and his brother, John.

Contributions may be made to the Suncoast Employee Appreciation Fund and mailed to Westminster Suncoast at address below.

A celebration of life and music will be held at Westminster Suncoast’s Quak Center Auditorium on February 21 at 2:00 p.m., 1095 Pinellas Point Dr. So., St. Petersburg.