(Kossuth) Kent Kennan

Class of 1875: State tax commissioner

(Kosseth) Kent Kennan was a lawyer specializing in tax law. He was born Nov. 17, 1851, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. At Ripon, he studied the classical course and languages. He was the assistant for College Days in 1873, was a member of the Mendelssohn Society, participated in plays, organized the first gymnasium and taught light gymnastics for two years.

He boarded with Professor Edward Merrell, later to be Ripon’s president, and in exchange for room and board he tended cattle and maintained fires in seven stoves. After a break from education to earn money, he returned to Ripon and supported himself by teaching calisthenics to young ladies of the college.

He taught himself enough engineering to supervise railroad and irrigation construction projects in Montana, and he recruited German immigrants to settle rural lands owned by the Wisconsin Central Railroad.

He was admitted to the bar in 1878 and practiced law in Milwaukee, where he specialized in tax cases. He was known as a leading authority on income tax legislation, and his suggestions are credited with greatly influencing the structure of the Wisconsin state income tax law of 1911.

He served as president of the Alumni Association and received an honorary degree from Ripon in 1911. He was a frequent and popular visitor to campus.

In the 1913 Crimson, it was written: “K.K. Kennan, ’75, of Milwaukee, known to all friends of Ripon as President of the Advancement Association, is at the head of the Income Tax Bureau of Wisconsin. An exhaustive study of the tax laws of all countries resulted in the publication of his book, ‘Income Taxation,’ which is called an epoch-making, thorough and comprehensive work on that subject. Since August 8, 1911, when he received his appointment, he has been very busy putting the new system into running order.”

He also wrote several books about Wisconsin tax legislation. He was tax commissioner for the Wisconsin Central Railroad for 20 years, state income tax commissioner from 1897 to 1899, and superintendent of income tax from 1911 to 1913, when he retired.

In 1930, he recorded his major accomplishments: “Secured passage of law for first permanent Tax Commission which has proved itself the most important and efficient in the U.S. Wrote first report of which 10,000 copies printed. Had charge of administration of income tax for first two years, the first really successful State Income Tax.”

One of his sons was George Frost Kennan, a prominent American diplomat, historian and foreign policy expert, who spoke at Ripon College and received an honorary degree in 1978. He was best known as an advocate of a policy of containment of Soviet expansion during the Cold War. He lectured widely and wrote scholarly histories of the relations between the USSR and the United States.

Another prominent relative was George Kennan, explorer and expert on Siberia.

Kent Kennan died Dec. 8, 1933, at the age of 82.