Maureen Kindel, a close confidant, fundraiser and adviser for Mayor Tom Bradley and a years-long powerful figure at City Hall and in other Los Angeles political circles, died Thursday.
Michael Gagan, her partner at the Kindel Gagan public affairs firm since 2010, announced her death in an email to friends Thursday evening. Kindel was 86.
Kindel was a well-known figure in the corridors of Los Angeles City Hall thanks to her work in support of and alongside Bradley, who served as mayor from 1973 to 1993 and made two unsuccessful runs for governor. Bradley appointed Kindel to the city Board of Public Works in 1979, and the following year she became that panel’s president — the first woman to hold the position, and a strong advocate for minority- and women-owned businesses in municipal contracting. She remained on the board until 1987.
“Anybody who was anybody in City Hall in those days knew her,” City News Service board Chairman Tom Quinn, who met Kindel while working on Bradley campaigns in the 1980s, said Thursday night. “She was a force of nature and a good person. … She was a wonderful woman.”
According to her Kindel Gagan biography, Kindel was a founding director of the Los Angeles Business Federation, the Los Angeles Business Council and the Pacific Council on Foreign Relations. She also served on the executive committees of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the International Foundation for Election Systems, and was secretary of the 1984 Olympic Foundation.
She also worked with Nelson Mandela upon his release from prison in South Africa, and continued her association with him when he was elected South Africa president.
Kindel, who had a master’s degree and a doctorate in education from Loyola Marymount University, maintained a passion for education through her career. She worked with former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Roy Romer and California Charter Schools Association President Caprice Young.
She served two terms on the Board of Regents at LMU, where she was a founding co-chair of the School of Education’s Board of Visitors. In 2022, the university named her Educator of the Year.
“Throughout her career, Kindel has made substantial, transformative contributions to the field of education overall, and to LMU SOE via her 15 years of service to the Board of Visitors, our chief external advisory and stakeholder community,” LMU School of Education Dean Michelle D. Young said in a statement at the time. “Her commitment to enriching the lives of all learners is unparalleled.”
She received a Founders Award from the Los Angeles League of Women Voters in 2009.