On
a quiet morning in
September of 2014,
Dennis Kennedy
rose early, donned a
Speedo and a wet suit, and dove into the
bone-chilling waters of the San Francisco
Bay. He was joined by dozens of other
adventurous souls in the annual Alcatraz
Invitational Swim. Together, they defied
choppy waves and a gnarly cross-current to
finish the grueling 1.25 mile swim.
Afterward, Kennedy stood alongside five
other top finishers in the winner’s circle,
exhausted yet elated. But why would he put
himself through such an ordeal? For start-
ers, he’s a lifelong athlete with a passion
for water sports. He is a septuagenarian…
so maybe Alcatraz was on his bucket list.
But on a deeper level, the Alcatraz swim is a
kind of metaphor for his life.
Those who know the former IBM
engineer turned mayor, board-level
executive and community leader say he is a
man of vision, ready to tackle big challenges
for the greater good of the community.
It will take more than a magazine article
to do justice to the storied career of Dennis
Kennedy and his contribution to the South
County, but it’s a place to start.
Young Life
Kennedy was born in 1938 in Omaha,
Nebraska. His family moved to San Jose’s
Willow Glen area while Kennedy was a
young boy and his father worked for Union
Pacific Railroad. He recalls his father’s
optimism about the wealth of opportunities
to build a good life in California.
“My dad showed us around Santa Clara
Valley, including a tour of the Stanford and
Santa Clara University campuses,” Kennedy
said. “He and my mother clearly wanted
my brothers Jack, Jim and me to get a good
education. I still marvel at how well my dad
provided for us on his modest salary.”
Kennedy earned a partial scholarship to
attend Bellarmine College Prep, a school
he applauds for emphasizing a balance of
academics, sports and community service.
From there he went on to earn a Bachelor’s
Degree in Mechanical Engineering at Santa
Clara University.
“By the mid to late 1950s, space
exploration was headline news. The
Russians had put a man in space and the
U.S. was hot on their heels. I enjoyed
studying subjects related to aircraft and
rocket technologies, which served me well
throughout my career.”
While at Santa Clara University,
Kennedy joined the ROTC, which provided
his introduction to military service and a
scholarship to help with tuition. He spent
his summers working in San Jose’s canneries
lugging produce-laden crates between
conveyors and box cars.
“My brother Jack sold me on the job.”
Laughing at the memory, Kennedy added, “I
was a little on the skinny side. Jack assured
me that all the heavy lifting would help me
beef up for football season.” The strategy
worked. Playing football provided the perfect
outlet for Kennedy’s competitive nature.
Recalling his school years, Kennedy said
he naturally gravitated to leadership roles
and drew inspiration from being in the
company of some rather impressive fellow
students.
“I went to school with John Sobrato, Leon
Panetta, Tom Hastings, Jerry Brown and
many others who went on to distinguished
careers in business and public service.”
From Aerospace to
Army and Back
As an early 1960s college grad with an
engineering degree, Kennedy quickly landed
a job at Aerojet General in Sacramento. He
served as an aerospace test engineer and
worked on a team supporting one of the
first manned space vehicles in the Gemini
space program, which laid important
groundwork for the Apollo mission.
“It was incredibly exciting being in the
bunker, waiting through the countdown
and witnessing the successful testing of
those rocket engines.”
Eight months into his career, Kennedy
was called by the Army into active duty at
bases in Texas, California and Germany. He
was promoted to First Lieutenant in the Air
Defense division in less than two years. When
the Army offered Kennedy a promotion to
Captain, he opted instead to return to civilian
life and his engineering career.
As fate would have it, his return coin-
cided with an industry shift away from
G M H T O D A Y M A G A Z I N E
MARCH / APRIL 2015
space exploration that resulted in layoffs at
Aerojet. Undaunted, Kennedy returned to
San Jose and parlayed his engineering know-
how into a job with IBM in the late 1960s.
The IBM Years
He found a perfect fit for his engineering
background in IBM’s Facilities Engineering
and Management Division. It wasn’t long
before he was appointed to chair a special
committee focused on advancing “clean
room” design, a hot button in electronics
manufacturing at that time.
“IBM was constantly innovating,
pushing the envelope to support bar
code recognition, disk storage and other
technologies. But the clean room processes
to manufacture these technologies are
heavily dependent on the use of ultra-pure
water, which is very expensive. My job was
to help IBM develop a sustainable system
of clean water to serve this purpose.”
Kennedy married his high school
sweetheart, Therese, in 1967 and their
son Matthew was born in 1971. Therese
suffered from multiple sclerosis, but she
battled the crippling disease, defying
medical prognoses before she passed away
more than 30 years later.
During those years, Kennedy and his son
grew closer, working together to comfort
and support Therese in managing her
disease. Today, father and son carve out
time to travel together, whether it’s a day
trip by train to Sacramento, or a visit to
Mizuho, Japan, which is a Sister City of
Morgan Hill.
For Matthew the qualities that stand
out the most in his dad are “his sense of
altruism, his perseverance through tough
times, and the strength of his faith.”
Reaching a Turning
Point
Kennedy gained a breadth of engineering
expertise at IBM, but after 25 years there,
he was restless, so he decided to explore
new career opportunities where he could
affect change. He also took his boss’s advice
and added new skills to his professional
toolbox.
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