James Drake Kennedy Jr., one of the founders of what grew into one of the largest privately owned warehouse and logistics companies in America, died Tuesday at his home on Lookout Mountain. He was 95.
Kennedy, an Army veteran who landed on Omaha Beach in World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart and two Bronze stars for heroic service in combat, started Cherokee Warehouses with his brother-in-law Sam Smartt in 1950 after he worked a couple of years at the former American National Bank.
Kennedy and Smartt built Cherokee Warehouses, later renamed to Kenco Group in 1967, into a nationwide company which today has more than 30 million square feet of warehouse space and over 5,000 employees.
While building the family-owned logistics business, Kennedy was an active civic and business leader, serving as chairman of the American Warehouse Association, the Hunter Museum of Art, the University of Chattanooga Foundation and Chattanooga Red Cross. Kennedy also served in the past as president of Allied Arts of Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Rotary Club, along with being a commissioner of fire and police for the town of Lookout Mountain, Tenn., and a board member for the Chattanooga Area Chamber of Commerce, Lookout Mountain Elementary School and Girls Preparatory School.
Through his Kennedy Foundation, he made the largest gift to the campaign by Erlanger hospital for what is now The Children’s Kennedy Outpatient Center at Erlanger.