Adele Louise Fennell

Obituary For Adele Louise Fennell

Adele Louise Fennell

Adele Fennell passed away on December 26, 2023 at the age of 92. She was an educator, an advocate for students and a champion for her children and grandchildren. Adele was born on August 24, 1931 to Wilfred Thomson and Mary (Porter) Thomson, in Hackensack, NJ, where she spent her formative years and received her early education.

In 1953, Adele took her place among the first African American students to graduate from Douglass College (Formerly: New Jersey College for Women), Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ. As she documented in her high school yearbook in 1950, Adele envisioned a future of teaching, travelling and raising a large family. Adele realized her dream over the next 20 years, between 1953 to 1974, living and teaching abroad with her family in tow (Liberia, Nigeria & Jamaica, WI). In 1957, while in Africa, Adele took a leave of absence to return to the United States to teach and to obtain her first Master's Degree before rejoining her family and relocating to Nigeria, where she spent the next 6 years working among the Yoruba people, learning a great deal about her early ancestors. Adele and her family spent the next 10 years in Jamaica, where is taught at Alpha Academy, a prestigious private school in Kingston and at Belair, a co-ed high school for Jamaican & American students in Mandeville (part of a cultural initiative sponsored by the United States). While working full time, Adele also started a successful poultry farming business, raising both egg-laying poultry birds and meat birds, and selling eggs and chickens at the local market in Mandeville, Jamaica. Adele returned to the United States In 1974, where she spent the next 24 years as an English teacher employed with the Hackensack Board of Education. During her tenure in the English Dept. at Hackensack Hight School, Adele attended Teacher's College, Columbia University, NY, NY, after work, with Joya, Allison & Holly in tow, obtaining a 2nd Master's Degree. After a short teaching assignment at Hackensack Middle School, Adele retired in 1998. Adele was a member of Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Hackensack, NJ. Adele moved to Atlanta, GA in 2016 to be nearer to her children and remained active by attending computer and art classes at the local senior center.

Adele was predeceased by her parents and her sister, Flora Everett, She will be sorely missed by her 5 children; Dr. Marcia Fennell (Alex Montemayor), Douglas Fennell, Joya Fennell Alexander (Owen), Dr. Allison Fennell, Holly Hull (Wayne), 5 grandchildren; Ayana Fennell, Mary Hull, Emily Hull, Zachary Sanders & Saiya Fennell; 1st Cousins, Joanne Wynne, Yvonne Porter & Samuel George Porter; extended family and friends.