Henry Plimpton Kendall (January 15, 1878 – November 3, 1959) was a

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

entrepreneur, industrialist, and philanthropist from

Walpole, Massachusetts Walpole is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Walpole Town, as the Census refers to it, is located about south of downtown Boston and north of Providence, Rhode Island. The population of Walpole was 26,383 at the 2020 censu ...

. He is considered one of the pioneers of

scientific management Scientific management is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows. Its main objective is improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineer ...

Biography

Early life

Kendall was born in 1878 in

Charlestown, Massachusetts Charlestown is the oldest neighborhood in Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States. Originally called Mishawum by the Massachusett tribe, it is located on a peninsula north of the Charles River, across from downtown Boston, and also adjoins t ...

, son of Henry Lucien Kendall en Clara Idella (Plimpton) Kendal. After attending the

Lawrenceville School The Lawrenceville School is a coeducational preparatory school for boarding and day students located in the Lawrenceville section of Lawrence Township, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. Lawrenceville is a member of the Eight Schoo ...

, boarding schools in New Jersey, he graduated from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

in Massachusetts in 1899.John N. Ingham. ''Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders.'' 1983. p. 701 After his graduation in 1899, he started his career at the Plimpton Press company in Norwood, Massachusetts, a company own by his uncle Herbert Mosley Plimpton (1859-1948). He worked his way up from a minor position to general manager and treasurer in 1910. In this period he had grown an interest in the

techniques of Frederick Winslow Taylor, which he had applied in the Plimpton Press plant. This became one of the earliest successful applications of the Taylor system.

Further career and honours

Kendall Dean School building and Town Hall in Slatersville in North Smithfield RI USA

Kendall eventually acquired and founded many

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

factories and other companies through his company, the Kendall Company, which emphasized product research and scientific processes. In 1972 the Kendall Company became a wholly owned subsidiary of

Colgate-Palmolive Colgate-Palmolive Company is an American multinational consumer products company headquartered on Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The company specializes in the production, distribution, and provision of household, health car ...

. In 1921-22 Kendall had served as 5h president of the

Taylor Society The Taylor Society was an American society for the discussion and promotion of scientific management, named after Frederick Winslow Taylor. Originally named The Society to Promote The Science of Management, the Taylor Society was initiated in 191 ...

as successor of Henry S. Dennison, and was succeeded by Richard A. Feiss. Moustafa H. Abdelsamad (ed.) "SAM Diamond anniversary," in: ''SAM Advanced Management Journal,'' Vol 53. Nr. 2 Spring 1988. p. 41 In 1934 and 1935 he served as Chairman of

The Business Council The Business Council is an organization of business leaders headquartered in Washington, D.C.United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

.The Business Council, Official website, Background
In the manufacturing village of

Slatersville, Rhode Island Slatersville is a village on the Branch River in the town of North Smithfield, Rhode Island, United States. It includes the Slatersville Historic District, a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The historic dist ...

the Kendall Dean School was named in his honor. Kendall also founded the Kendall Whaling Museum in

Sharon, Massachusetts Sharon is a New England town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 18,575 at the 2020 census. Sharon is part of Greater Boston, about southwest of downtown Boston, and is connected to both Boston and Providence by ...

in 1955, which in 2001 was merged with the

New Bedford Whaling Museum The New Bedford Whaling Museum is a museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States that focuses on the history, science, art, and culture of the international whaling industry, and the "Old Dartmouth" region (now the city of New Bedford and ...

and now forms large portions of its permanent collection.

Personal life and death

Kendall was married to Evelyn Louise Way (1893–1979), and they had three children including

Henry Way Kendall Henry Way Kendall (December 9, 1926 – February 15, 1999) was an American particle physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1990 jointly with Jerome Isaac Friedman and Richard E. Taylor "for their pioneering investigations concerning deep ...

(1926-1999), who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1990, and business executive

John Plimpton Kendall John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second ...

. Kendall was an active philanthropist. He founded the Kendall Foundation and served on the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the largest and most imp ...

, a Christian mission society. Kendall's property

Moose Hill Farm Moose Hill Farm is a open space preserve and historic farm complex located in Sharon, Massachusetts near the summit of Moose Hill. The property, acquired in 2005 by the land conservation non-profit organization The Trustees of Reservations, i ...

is now an open space for the public. Kendall died on November 3, 1959 in

Work

Kendall eventually acquired and founded many

factories and other companies through his company, the Kendall Company, which emphasized product research and scientific processes.Harvard Business School Profile http://www.hbs.edu/leadership/database/leaders/henry_p_kendall.html His company produced products such as Curity Diapers and Curad finger bandages (those brands are now owned by

Covidien Covidien was an Irish-headquartered global health care products company and manufacturer of medical devices and supplies. Covidien became an independent publicly traded company after being spun off from Tyco International in 2007. It was purcha ...

). He first turned around the Lewis Manufacturing Company in Walpole and then purchased the manufacturing village of

. Kendall Company produced textiles for the government and Red Cross during World War I and expanded throughout the twentieth century acquiring manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico.

Selected publications

* James G., Dennison H., Gay E., Kendall H. and Burrit A. (1926), ''Profit-Sharing and Stock Ownership for Employees,'' Harper, New York * Henry B. Elkind (ed.) ''Preventive management: mental hygiene in industry,'' with foreword by Henry P. Kendall, 1930. * ''Early maps of Carolina and adjoining regions'' From the Collection of Henry P. Kendall, Boston, Mass. Camden, S.C. 1937 * Henry P Kendall, ''Special exhibition of the Henry P. Kendall whaling collection at the Pratt school of naval architecture and marine engineering,'' 1937. * Henry P. Kendall, ''The Kendall Company, 50 years of Yankee enterprise!,'' 1953.

References

External links

Henry P. Kendall Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kendall, Henry P. 1878 births 1959 deaths Engineers from Massachusetts American industrialists American philanthropists American chief executives of manufacturing companies People from Walpole, Massachusetts