Kay Azar, retired innovative teacher and hall of fame girls’ tennis coach at Audubon High School, has died at 80

Kay Azar, 80, of Cherry Hill, retired innovative heath and physical education teacher, and hall of fame girls’ tennis coach at Audubon High School, died Tuesday, May 7, of a stroke at Virtua Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Camden.

Mrs. Azar taught at Audubon for 43 years and created a new adapted physical education program for students with special needs in 2011. The program she cowrote was called “Engaging Students, Fostering Achievement, Cultivating 21st Century Global Skills,” and it promoted critical thinking and problem-solving as well as athletic training.

She proposed the use of new technology, science education, and music for the program, and said in the unit overview: “They will realize the benefits of exercise and how important it should be in their daily lives. Students will learn the value of working with others and the importance of sportsmanship.”

She taught the program as part of her classes until she retired from teaching in 2014, and it was reapproved by the school in 2017. Former students said she was inspirational, and other teachers called her a role model. “Her smile was contagious, and her outpouring of care and concern touched me very deeply,” a former teaching colleague said in a tribute.

Mrs. Azar joined a developing girls’ tennis team at Audubon in 1971, when it still shared courts with the boys and played in the spring, and she turned it into a South Jersey powerhouse that had just one losing season in 27 years. She was inducted into the New Jersey Scholastic Coaches Hall of Fame in 1996 and retired from coaching in 1998 with a record of 385 victories and 171 defeats.

In 2023, the school named its tennis courts after her. In a recent tribute, a former coaching colleague praised “her warmth and sensitivity, her enlightened leadership, and her concern for all of the players.”

Her teams won the Colonial Conference championship in 1975 and South Jersey group championships in 1980, ‘81, and ‘94. The 1981 team finished second in the state, and she was named the 1985 girls’ tennis coach of the year by the South Jersey Tennis Coaches Association.

A star tennis player herself in high school and college, Mrs. Azar liked to hit with her players at practice, and they embraced her engaging discipline and constant enthusiasm. She stressed team play over individual achievements, and sought to instill people skills as well as lifelong training habits.

She was a founding member of the South Jersey Tennis Coaches Association and chaired its scholarship committee for 12 years. She also coached the Audubon girls’ basketball team for three years and the junior varsity girls’ tennis team for a decade.

Mrs. Azar served on the school’s scholarship committee for 20 years and organized retirement celebrations and events for local senior citizens for nearly four decades. Even after she retired, she volunteered to help the girls’ tennis team if needed.

“What’s most important,” she told The Inquirer in 1998, ”is having a caring attitude and trying to help players develop as students and as athletes.” She won her 300th tennis match in 1993 and said: “I really feel very blessed. It’s a tribute to the kids and their attitude …”

Kay Ann Azar was born Feb. 2, 1944, in Sturgis, Mich., 165 miles west of Detroit. She was a basketball and tennis star in high school and went on to play singles at Michigan State and East Stroudsburg Universities.

She met George Azar at Michigan State, and they married in 1963, and moved to Easton, Pa. They had son Todd and daughter Robyn, and she graduated from East Stroudsburg with a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education in 1971.

They moved to Cherry Hill in 1970. Her husband died in 2018.

Mrs. Azar donated to charity fundraisers and enjoyed golf, bowling, and pickle ball as well as tennis. She was part of a puzzle group and liked to linger in her garden.

Her social life was vibrant, and friends visited often. “She was very engaging,” her son said.

Her daughter said: “Everybody she met was her best friend. She was a bright light.”

In addition to her children, Mrs. Azar is survived by six grandchildren, a brother, and other relatives.

Services were held on May 13.

Donations in her name may be made to the Sacred Heart Parish, 1739 Ferry Ave., Camden, N.J. 08104; and Trinity Presbyterian Church, 499 Marlton Pike East, Cherry Hill, N.J. 08034.