On November 11, 2010, while waiting to judge a parade, Kuykendall suffered a heart attack but later recovered.
[1] Kuykendall opened the town's first Toyota dealership and later acquired the Buick Pontiac and GMC franchises there as well.
Kuykendall served 3 years before returning to the National Guard, where he was made the Prescott Unit's Commanding Officer in 1959.
He later served as Tactical Officer of the Arizona Military Academy, as an aide-de-camp to the Commanding General of the Arizona Army National Guard, and as Northern Arizona Chair of the Defense Department's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR), and escorted civilian VIPs on fact-finding tours across several continents.
Kuykendall won re-election in 2011 against challengers Mary Ann Suttles and Deborah Thurston.