COLUMBIA, SC — Mary M. Kennemur, a former Wall Street executive, USC Moore School of Business alumna and United Way of the Midlands board member, died Sunday in Columbia.

Kennemur also served as former executive director of the Business Partnership Foundation at the Moore School of Business.

She was 59 years old.

Services will be held Thursday, Nov. 15, 2012, at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 1100 Sumter St., Columbia, at 3 p.m.

A wife and a mother, Kennemur was born in Frankfurt, Germany but grew up in Columbia and had deep family roots in this community. She graduated with presidential honors from USC in 1975 with a degree in business. Kennemur was named a Distinguished Alumna in 2001, and in 1998 she established the Mary M. Kennemur Scholarship at Moore School. Kennemur was a devoted supporter of the University of South Carolina.

Kennemur also is being remembered as someone with great compassion for the downtrodden.

“It’s just a terrible loss for our community,” said Mac Bennett, United Way of the Midlands president and CEO. “She was really a friend of the downcast and she’ll really be missed”

Kennemur served briefly as United Way of the Midlands board chairman, before moving with her husband, Dennis, and son, Will, to Florida in her position with Merrill Lynch. Kennemur was the first female member of the South Carolina Retirement Systems Investment Panel.

In 2007-2008, at the start of the recent economic recession, Kennemur served as co-chair of the United Way of the Midlands fundraising campaign and helped lead the organization to two of its best donation years ever, Bennett said.

Kennemur served with Columbia attorney Steve Morrison and the pair worked hard to ensure a great campaign result highlighted by lots of people contributing, Bennett said.

“She was just a tireless community advocate,” he added.

A visitation will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2012, at Dunbar Funeral Home, 3926 Devine St., Columbia, from 4:30 until 6:30 p.m.