A teacher and ‘encourager’: KC cyclist, father of 10 killed in hit-and-run remembered
Footballs flying. Knees scrambling up tree trunks. Youngsters chasing each other across the lawn. The scene outside one Kansas City home was, for some, a picture perfect snapshot of family life.
At the center of it all was a bald guy with a big grin: Charles Criniere.
“It’s one of those kind of families, you know, and (Criniere) was right in the center of it. He’s a pastor. he’s a teacher. Full of light, energy. I don’t know where he gets that energy,” Ken DeBenedictis, 53, said in awe of his next door neighbor of seven years and dear friend in faith.
Criniere, 43, a husband, teacher and father to 10, was killed Saturday morning while riding his bicycle. Kansas City police are still trying to find the driver who struck Criniere and then fled the scene.
The middle school math teacher valued learning and community, but above all he held up his faith. And that faith is where his loved ones are now taking shelter in his absence.
A father and husband
More than two decades ago, Criniere walked into a Chicago church.
Cecilia Sullivan, who serves as a pastor at Cross and Crown with her husband, had been asking God to bring a good husband into her daughter’s life. There was something about this young man that drew her attention.
“Five minutes later, I knew he was the one that I had prayed for,” she said.
A few years later, her daughter, Megan, took Criniere’s hand in marriage.
In the two decades since, Criniere became a deacon at Grace Point Baptist Church, near where he and his wife settled down in Kansas City. They also frequent the International House of Prayer just down the street.
Sullivan has watched her daughter and son-in-law bring 10 children into the world. The oldest is now 20, and the youngest a few months shy of 2. All have been homeschooled by their mother, with Criniere as the family’s sole financial provider.
”They were perfectly made for one another,” said David Popovici, his brother-in-law. “They were a perfect team.”
Now the community is coming together to support Criniere’s widow and his 10 children, nine of whom are still at home. Pans of lasagna are stacked in the fridge. Condolences are shared. One man even offered to put a new roof on the Criniere’s home.
And they’re telling the story of the man many describe as an “encourager,” thanks to his gift for leaving people on a positive note, so that his devotion to his family and community won’t easily be forgotten.
“You would talk to Charlie and leave like a million bucks,” Popovici said.
Ministry in and out of the classroom
Criniere’s career as a math teacher at the Grandview C-4 School District spanned high school and middle school. He most recently taught at Martin City K8.
“Charles Criniere’s commitment to students and his love for teaching touched so many lives in our school community in a remarkable way,” Sheba Clarke, a spokeswoman for the district, said in a statement Monday. “He was a wonderful teacher, loved by his students and colleagues. The difference he made was lasting. He will be incredibly missed.”
The classroom was Criniere’s ministry, loved ones said. It wasn’t solely a place to teach math. It was also a place to help students in need.
Then, arriving home from a long day at work, Sullivan said Criniere, without hesitation, “threw himself on the floor and played with his children ... He just loved them to death.”
Across the globe, Criniere’s nephew, Popovici’s son, began struggling to pass high school math while taking courses online while Popovivi worked as a pastor in Iraq. Criniere got wind of his nephew’s struggles and made time when everyone else was asleep to help tutor the high schooler over Zoom, despite the 9-hour time difference. It’s one more example of how Criniere would make the time for everyone, even if he seemed to have none of it left to give.
The Criniere’s front door was always open to others, and the dozens of kids growing up in the south Kansas City neighborhood, off Grandview Road, would flock to Criniere.
“He was the neighborhood pastor. He was a teacher. He was the perfect camp counselor, you know what I mean?” said DeBenedictis, who has four children of his own. “When he was out there with the kids, you really feel okay, ‘Charlie’s got them.’”
In what quiet moments they found, DeBenedictis said he and Criniere never had a superficial conversation. His friend dreamed big about reaching more people - more youth.
While raising his family, Criniere also earned a masters degree in education. He was in the process of pursuing an Advanced Masters in Educational Coaching when he was killed, loved ones said.
Working with youth, especially those from troubled backgrounds or those without fathers, was Criniere’s calling, motivated by some of his own experiences growing up in Chicago, loved ones said. One of his life-long dreams was to open an orphanage with his wife.
On Thursday, two days before he was killed, Criniere eagerly told DeBenedictis that he’d been offered a chance to work with youth in the juvenile detention system.
“He was just lit up,” DeBenedictis said.
The bicycle crash
Criniere woke up at 5 a.m. most mornings to pray. Then he headed to school. But if it was a weekend, he’d hop on his bicycle.
“He would use it as his getaway,” DeBenedictis said. “Clear his head, gather his thoughts and just be alone.”
At about 6:15 a.m. Saturday, Kansas City police were called to the site of a crash on View High Drive near the intersection of Longview Road, by Metropolitan Community College’s Longview campus.
The bicyclist, Criniere, was declared dead at the scene. Police are still looking for the driver who struck him before fleeing in what police believe to be a white Acura MDX.
It doesn’t make any sense, DeBenedictis said, trying to wrap his mind around the loss. He thinks he knows what Criniere would tell him, if he could:
“God’s good. He’s got it all under control,” DeBenedictis said.
A GoFundMe was created Sunday to help provide financial support to the Criniere family. As of Monday evening, the fund had garnered more than $126,000 in donations.
DeBenedictis said the money will go toward supporting the family in the form of house and car payments, and the general costs of raising 10 children.
His biggest wish is that his friend’s legacy lives on through the children whose lives he touched.
“I just hope that they take a little piece of what Charles was showing them and teaching them and they pass it on to their kids,” he said.
This story was originally published August 29, 2022 at 6:05 PM.
