April 4, 2024

Former Washington Post Columnist John Kelly to be Guest at Free Silver Spring SPARKLE Event on Wednesday, April 10, at Silver Spring Civic Building

John Kelly

John Kelly, who retired earlier this year after 34 years with The Washington Post including many years as the creative author of “John Kelly’s Washington” in the Metro section, will be the featured guest at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, at a free SPARKLE event at the Silver Spring Civic Building.

The Silver Spring Civic Building is located at 1 Veterans Pl. in Downtown Silver Spring.

The SPARKLE program is a monthly community outreach series that enriches the lives of seniors. SPARKLE stands for Senior Programs Aimed at Re-Kindling Lifetime Engagement. Its programs are presented in collaboration with Silver Spring Town Center, Inc.

“A Conversation with John Kelly” will cover the Silver Spring resident’s more than three decades at the newspaper. The highlights of that time include writing a daily column that ran for more than 20 years. His column had a wide range from the unusual happenings in metropolitan Washington to celebrities to squirrel activities.

Before he took over the column space then-anchored by Bob Levey, Mr. Kelly was a general assignment reporter in Metro, the founding editor of the KidsPost feature and the editor of the Weekend section.

Mr. Kelly was born in Washington and grew up around the world as an Air Force brat. He graduated from the University of Maryland with an English degree and has done journalism fellowships at Harvard and Oxford.

To RSVP to attend the event, go programs@silverspringvillage.org.