{{short description|American dermatologist}} {{Infobox medical person | honorific_prefix = | name = John A. Kenney Jr. | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = <!-- only use if different from name above --> | birth_date = {{birth date|1914|10|08}} | birth_place = Tuskegee, Alabama | death_date = {{Death date and age|2003|11|29|1914|10|08}} | death_place = Washington, D.C. | citizenship = | education = Bates College, Howard University | occupation = Dermatologist, medical researcher | years_active = | known_for = Research on skin disorders among racial minorities | relations = John A. Kenney Sr. (father)<br>William Oscar Armstrong (grandfather)<ref>{{cite news |title=William Oscar Armstrong |work=The Boston Globe |date=May 23, 1932}}</ref> | website = | profession = | work_institutions = Howard University Hospital | specialism = Dermatology | research_field = | notable_works = | prizes = American Academy of Dermatology Master of Dermatology (1995) | module2 = | signature = }} '''John Andrew Kenney Jr.''' (October 8, 1914 &ndash; November 29, 2003) was an American dermatologist who taught at Howard University. He specialized in the study of skin disorders affecting racial minorities. He was one of the first African-American doctors to receive formal training in dermatology, and his mentees often described him as the "dean of black dermatology".<ref name=ency>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2005 |title=Kenney, John A., Jr. |encyclopedia=Contemporary Black Biography |publisher=Thomson Gale |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/kenney-john-jr |language=en |access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref><ref name=nyt>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/06/business/j-a-kenney-jr-medical-pioneer-dies-at-89.html |title=J. A. Kenney Jr., Medical Pioneer, Dies at 89 |last=Tuller |first=David |date=2003-12-06 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2018-03-22 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Imadojemu |first1=Sotonye |last2=James |first2=William D. |date=2016-01-01 |title=Increasing African American Representation in Dermatology |url=http://archderm.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?doi=10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.3030 |journal=JAMA Dermatology |language=en |volume=152 |issue=1 |pages=15–6 |doi=10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.3030 |pmid=26509327 |issn=2168-6068|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Early life and education== Kenney was born in Tuskegee, Alabama, on October 8, 1914. He was the oldest of four children of John A. Kenney Sr. and Frieda Armstrong Kenney, both of whom were also influential figures in African-American medicine. His father joined the Tuskegee Institute on the invitation of its founder, Booker T. Washington; he later became medical director and chief surgeon there. His mother graduated from Boston University, making her one of the first black women to do so; she later also took a teaching position at the Tuskegee Institute. After the family was threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, they moved to Montclair, New Jersey in 1923, where Kenney attended Montclair High School.<ref name=ency/> He graduated from Bates College in 1942, where he studied chemistry and biology,<ref name=nyt/> and received his medical degree from Howard University in 1945. At Howard, he was a member of both Alpha Omega Alpha and Kappa Pi.<ref name=ency/>

==Career== Kenney was an instructor in biochemistry at Howard from 1946 to 1948, and served as the assistant editor of the ''Journal of the National Medical Association'' from 1947 to 1952. In 1953, he opened a private dermatology and syphilology practice in Cleveland, Ohio.<ref name=ency/> He joined the faculty of Howard University as an assistant professor in 1961,<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://abacus.bates.edu/pubs/mag/96-Summer/kenney.html |title=John Kenney '42 |magazine=Bates|date=Summer 1996 |access-date=2018-03-22}}</ref> and continued to teach there for almost four decades.<ref name=nyt/> He served as president of the National Medical Association from 1962 to 1963, making him the only president of this association whose father had also previously been its president.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Ltd |first=Earl G. Graves |date=February 1975 |title=Disciples Of |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBD1cQ117I8C |magazine=Black Enterprise |language=en |publisher=Earl G. Graves, Ltd.|page=26}}</ref> By 1973, he had succeeded in creating a separate dermatology department at Howard's Freedmen's Hospital.<ref name=ency/> He served as chief of the division of dermatology there for 12 years, after which he served as founding chairman of the department of dermatology for five years. He stepped down from his position of department chairman in 1980.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=MD |first=Ahmad Reza Hossani-Madani MD, Chesahna Kindred MD MBA, Sharon Bridgeman-Shah MD, Ife Rodney MD, and Rebat M. Halder |date=August 2012 |title=Resident Rounds: Part I History of Howard University Hospital Department of Dermatology and Residency Program |url=http://jddonline.com/articles/dermatology/S1545961612P0991X/1 |journal=J Drugs Dermatol |volume=11 |issue=8}}</ref> He remained a practicing dermatologist in Washington, D.C. until 1999.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2003/12/07/john-a-kenney-jr-89/b26bfa6c-5c46-4f31-9540-11cefb734352/ |title=John A. Kenney Jr., 89 |date=2003-12-07 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2018-03-22 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref>

==Honors and awards== In 1970, Kenney became the first black member of the American Academy of Dermatology, which named him a Master of Dermatology in 1995. In 1988, he received the [https://dermatologyfoundation.org/ Dermatology Foundation]'s [https://dermatologyfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/FinnHistAwardeesUpdated2024.pdf Clark W. Finnerud Award], and he received the American Academy of Dermatology's Gold Medal in 2001.<ref name=ency/>

==Personal life and death== Kenney married Larcenia Ferne Wood in 1943; they remained married until her death in 2000. They had three children together: Frances Wood Kenney Moseley, John Andrew Kenney III, and Anne Kenney. Kenney Jr. died of heart failure on November 29, 2003, at his home in Washington, D.C.<ref name=ency/>

==Influence== Kenney's obituary in ''The Washington Post'' estimated that of the about 300 black dermatologists practicing in the United States in 2003, Kenney had mentored or trained about one-third of them.<ref name=ency/>

==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenney, John A., Jr.}} Category:1914 births Category:2003 deaths Category:20th-century African-American medical doctors Category:20th-century American medical doctors Category:American dermatologists Category:Montclair High School (New Jersey) alumni Category:People from Montclair, New Jersey Category:People from Tuskegee, Alabama Category:Howard University faculty Category:Bates College alumni Category:Howard University alumni Category:Medical doctors from New Jersey Category:Medical doctors from Alabama Category:21st-century African-American people