Published: April 27, 2026
Kendal at Oberlin is home to more than 300 people in their 60s and well beyond. They come from near (Oberlin and Cleveland) and far (Hawaii, Canada, and elsewhere). The residents share many common values, such as sustainability and lifelong learning, and
many have ties to Oberlin College. But each resident has his or her own unique story.
Meet Dina Schoonmaker
Dina has lived in Oberlin since 1960 so yes, she knows the city very well.
“It’s amazing Oberlin has changed so little compared to other places,” she says, one of many delights of calling Oberlin and Kendal at Oberlin home.
In 2009 Dina and her husband, Dick, moved to Kendal at Oberlin. Dick died in 2021 and Dina moved out of her cottage (“with a big flower garden”) to an apartment. “I’m very happy here in my little apartment. I have everything I need,” she says.
A pleasant pace
Staying active but not overdoing it is Dina’s approach to life. She walks two to three miles a day, often heading downtown, which means a stop in Ben Franklin “for whatever I need or don’t need.” Along with daily walks, she attends a chair exercise class biweekly and in warm weather likes to ride her tricycle.
In January, Dina, an avid reader, took over duties maintaining the Kendal library. “I spend about a couple of hours a week on it,” she says.
Library shelves are filled with books donated by residents, so weeding down the collection is an ongoing job. Decommissioned books are put on a freebie table, donated or sold to a used bookstore. The library still relies on a card catalog, with cards tucked in the back of books, and while borrowing is for four weeks, fines are not collected.
Like many Kendal residents, Dina frequents the Oberlin Public Library and Oberlin College Library (she was head of its Special Collections and Preservation departments) and she’s a member of the Eclectic Book Club, which meets at Kendal monthly. “I love books – paper pages – no Kindle for me,” she says.
And she’s a member of the Kendal at Oberlin Residents Association (KORA) Council.
“I’ve been trying to cut back but it doesn’t work,” she laughs.
Travels near and far
Dina celebrated her 90th birthday last summer at Lakeside with some of her family – her three sons and their families from California, Idaho and Texas. Her days of flying are over, so family come her way for reunions, the next one in September on an Erie Canal barge.
Dina doesn’t mind staying closer to home as she has had a lifetime filled with travel. Born in Berlin to Russian émigrés, as an infant she was taken to Great Britain to escape the Nazis and spent the next nine years living in various cities in England and Scotland, including a year on a farm on the Galway Peninsula to which the family was evacuated.
Later travels with Dick took the couple to Senegal, Madagascar, Bolivia, Chile and California to visit children; Nepal, Alaska, Switzerland, and the American west to backpack; and China, Egypt, Kenya and many other countries to sightsee. Sabbaticals for Dick, an Oberlin College chemistry professor, took the couple to Oxford and York in England, Berkeley, California and Berlin, Germany.
Dina’s foreign background has given her fluency in three foreign languages- German, Russian, and French – and she occasionally attends the German dinner table that meets weekly at Kendal. (Kendal also has French and Spanish tables.)
Any words of wisdom to share?
“I try to keep healthy, and luckily enjoy exercising and walking,” she says.
