A Family Tree Rooted in Black and Gold

It started as a classic Terp love story. Kindall [née Bliss] Rende ’87 worked at Bentley’s and was spending a night off there to celebrate the end of the semester. Denis ’85 was there as a last hurrah after graduation, before heading to Antigua to teach tennis.

“We knew each other for about 11 days, and I wound up going to Antigua on break to spend more time with him,” Kindall says.”We were married three years later.”

Then came four kids–and all of them would become alums, turning a Terp love story into a Terp family.

“It was really their choice,” Kindall says. “There was no expectation on our part. They chose it based on the opportunities they were given.”

The Maryland connections in their family don’t end there: cousins, grandparents–two of the Rende kids even went on to marry Terps themselves.

“There were lots of Terps, of course, at both of these weddings,” Kindall says. “They were pretty solid reunions.”

Maryland, Kindall says, was foundational to her family’s journey. Kindall got a job that grew out of a student internship at NBC and Denis, who played for the Maryland varsity tennis team, now owns a tennis club in Baltimore. Both are doing what they set out to do.

The same for the kids. Sydney ’14 went on to get an MFA in English at Syracuse University and published her first collection of short stories this year. Galen ’16 studied journalism and environmental science, went to the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law and now works in food law in Washington, D.C. Will ’22 graduated with a degree in material science and engineering and is working for a renewable energy startup in New York.

The youngest, Austen ’26, studied communication and moved to New York after graduating this year.

“Her fate is unknown in a beautiful way,” Kindall says. “She certainly has the confidence and the real-world experience having gone to Maryland to not blink an eye going to New York and figuring it out. She's not hesitating.”

Despite the range of majors the Rende family studied, certain connections tied their Maryland experiences together. Denis was able to play tennis on the Maryland courts with his kids. All of them joined Greek organizations. And for Kindall, just knowing they all studied at McKeldin Library is a special tie. 

“I loved the feeling of [the library],” she recalls. “I loved the community, even if you didn't talk to anybody, the sense that we were all there together.”

Now that all four Rende kids have graduated, Kindall says it’s been an adjustment. 

“It’ll take some time to sink in,” she says. “It feels a little like the end of an era.”

But seeing the power of a Maryland education gives her hope that wherever life takes them, they’ll be ready. 

“It's so nice that the value of our education continues to go up,” she says. “It’s something that we can count on.”