Posted by Harriet Kaplan, a resident of another community, on Nov 22, 2010 at 11:22 am

Hal and Virginia Cenedella were instrumental in the founding of Charlottesville's Peabody School. In 1994, After a long and fruitless search for a building for the new school (which had thirteen children ready to begin school), Hal and Virginia rented us space in one of their office buildings despite the potential noise and disruption that the school's young scholars might, on occasion, create. Furthermore, Hal was always ready to help out the school by changing the interior space to suit our growing school. The children knew Hal as "Mr. Cinderella," and they thought that if they were "bad" they would be sent to the Head of School (me) but if they were "really bad," they would be sent to "Mr. Cinderella." When we outgrew the building and moved to our own building in 1997, the Cenedella's decorated our stairwell with balloons and a "Best Wishes" sign. My husband, Eric Kaplan, and I will never forget the kindness of the Cenedellas as well as the fact that, were it not for their creative thinking, Peabody School (which now serves almost 140 students) might never have opened. We send to Virginia our sincere sympathy at the loss of this dear, dear man.