Terry was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1928. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass. In 1950 she married Ralph Kovel. Their children are Lee Kovel and Kim Kovel.
Terry started her writing career with her husband, Ralph, in 1953 (see section Ralph and Terry Kovel).[1] Terry was a reading specialist and mathematics teacher at Hawken School, Lyndhurst, Ohio, from 1961 to 1971. She took specialized courses, including “How to Teach New Math,” at the University of Illinois, and studied American antiques at the Winterthur Museum Summer Institute.
Terry Kovel has been a volunteer since she was a teenager. She was a group leader for girls at East End Neighborhood House in the 1950s, an appraiser and advisor for many non-profit antique-related projects, and an auctioneer, appraiser, and go-getter at public television fundraisers. She has also been active in many civic gardening projects, both digging and helping with fundraisers. She has served on the Ohio Historic Preservation Committee and has been a board member of the Cleveland Chapter of the Council of Jewish Women, the Catholic DePaul Infant and Maternity Home, and Hiram College. She is now on the boards of WVIZ/PBS and 90.3 WCPN Ideastream and the Shaker Heights Historical Society and is an honorary trustee of Hiram College.