Kenneth Barklind, U of W Prof Who Helped Vulnerable Kids, Dead at 80

Edina resident Kenneth Stewart Barklind, a University of Wisconsin professor who helped bring Montessori School to Minnesota and worked to help vulnerable and troubled children, died on Oct. 18 at the age of 80 from Alzheimer's.

Barklind graduated from Macalester College before earning a Master's and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Minnesota. He worked as a child psychologist for school psychologist for St. Paul Public Schools, the Cooperative Schools for Retarded Children at Glen Lake Minnetonka, Bloomington Public Schools and Minneapolis Public Schools, and taught at the University of Victoria, Minnesota State University St. Theresa's College of Winona and the U of W.

"Ken was always interested in helping the most vulnerable and troubled children such as those with intellectual disabilities and the emotionally and behaviorally disturbed," reads an obituary printed in the Pioneer Press. "Ken worked with Arc Minnesota to de-institutionalize intellectually disabled people from State institutions."

He also worked with his wife, Ann, to open Edina Montessori, the first Montessori school in Minnesota. 

A Memorial Service will be held 1 p.m. on Nov. 16 at The First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis.