Friends remember couple killed in plane crash

Angie and Stuart Kensinger were two of six people who died on Monday morning when a plane crashed near Kerrville, Texas

The couple, who had been married for 30 years, called Houston home and Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church was their home for worship. They dedicated their lives to serving others.

Stuart was a real estate developer.

Angie was the long time varsity girl’s lacrosse head coach at St. John’s School. Stuart is also an alumnus of the school.

“Angie loved lacrosse but even more than that she loved positively influencing the lives of the scholar athletes that she worked with,” said Reverend Greg Han with Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston. He taught some of Angie’s players at St. John’s.

Han met Angie more than a decade ago. 

“[The students] were being taught by Angie teamwork, integrity and dedication and excellence and humility,” he added.

Since Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston, Han also became familiar with Stuart’s work with Jerusalem Peacebuilders.

Stuart founded the organization which operates out of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, but each summer had a camp at Camp Allen in Navasota. There,  12 to 14-year-old Israelis and Palestinians would focus on interfaith learning and peacemaking.

“Stuart felt that there was more hope in the children than there was in the adults or political system,” said George Dehan, the President of Camp Allen.

He adds he had just seen Stuart on Thursday to talk about his vision for the camp this summer.

“I think that if you were going to look at examples for good Christian heart, Stuart had that,” Dehan concluded. 

Dehan says Stuart’s next project was building a hospital in Gaza. 

Those who knew them say the couple deeply admired one another. They were always, and now always will be, together.

“In life and in death they’re together,” said Han teary-eyed. 

Neil Willard, the rector at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church said in a statement:

“Angie and Stuart Kensinger were members of Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston. They were just celebrating Easter Day with us on Sunday, together with their son Philip, who was home from college. We are grateful that Philip is safe, and we’re surrounding him with the love of Jesus through our prayers and our presence. Stuart was baptized as an adult by one of my friends from seminary, who wrote this to me: “Who knew that Easter’s promise of eternal life . . . would become so dear so fast this Easter Monday?”

The Kensingers supported many civic and humanitarian projects, including the work of the Archbishop of Canterbury throughout the Anglican Communion through the Compass Rose Society. Stuart was the Founding Director and Treasurer of Jerusalem Peacebuilders and wholeheartedly supported its work and commitment to peace between Israelis and Palestinians in the Holy Land. He was also a member of the Board of Trustees for Camp Allen in Navasota and Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. Angie was the long-time Head Coach of the Varsity Girls’ Lacrosse Team at St. John’s School.

Stuart and Angie were incredibly kind and generous and compassionate Christians. When they gave of themselves to the community, they gave from the heart and they gave freely out of love for God and love for their neighbor. Their loss is devastating for our congregation and for the City of Houston. Yet I know that both of them would want us to continue to work for peace in a world too often stripped of grace. May the witness of their lives to God’s mercy inspire us all.”