Patrick Ryan, further encouraged Kennelly to move to Mobile, Alabama, where he attended Spring Hill College, which had a high school on its campus at the time.
[1] [5] Kennelly spent much of the 1940s as a postgraduate student while also working as a teacher and administrator at several Jesuit high schools.
[2] Kennelly spearheaded a $600,000 capital campaign to purchase 80 acres of rural farmland from a dairy rancher during his tenure as principal.
[3] The Tampa Tribune called Kennelly the "founder" of the modern Jesuit High School campus in 2011.
[1] Kennelly also established the President's Council, which consisted of a group of business executives who contributed their professional experience to the university.
[1] Father Kennelly became the assistant pastor of Gesu Church in downtown Miami, Florida, after leaving the Loyola presidency.
[5] Kennelly returned once again to Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida, serving as its rector and vice president from 1990 until 1997.
[2] Kennelly moved to Ignatius Residence, a Jesuit retirement community located in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans, in 2003.
[1] Father Michael Kennelly died at the Ignatius Residence in Algiers, New Orleans, Louisiana, on January 3, 2011, at the age of 96.