Frank Kenna '50 and Marlin Firearms Company
“An interesting account about Lambda Iota alumni Frank Kenna ’50 and his Company, Marlin Firearms, written by a former employee that I recently found and thought worth repeating In these times of faceless management, P.C. and distant corporate politics we tend to forget the origins of businesses and the personal efforts that went into making them a success and a pleasure to work for. Anyone who has been fortunate to work for a home grown company at some time in his life, will tell you how much he professionally and personally later missed that wonderful time. Frank’s biography (can be found) below if you missed it in Remembrance.”
Paul ‘59
Marlin: The real truth
One of the Marlin Owners Administrators has asked me to combine two of my recent posts pertaining to the closure of Marlin in North Haven under the control of Cerberus and Remington. I thought it might be a good thing to do, because of all the misinformation I have read.
So, let me begin.
When I joined Marlin in 2001, it was a family owned company with approximately 25 to 27 extended Kenna family member stock holders. Some men, some women, some young, some older, probably some minors. too. At that time, Marlin employed about 265 workers at the 2000-2006 time frame. At one time marlin employed as many as 500-600 workers. Some employees had worked at Marlin for 35+ years....Whole families worked there— fathers ,mothers and their grown children.
The owner of Marlin Firearms, Frank Kenna Sr. was very loyal to, and protective of all his employees and would rather cut overall company hours than lay one worker off.
He would come out into the Assembly area every morning, and a Gunsmith would show him a newly finished rifle that he was proud of building, and Frank would smile as he inspected it, hand it back and say, "Make'em all that way.”
You'll never see Frank’s kind of employer loyalty, ever again. He kept some workers on staff, because he knew they needed their job, and would have difficulty finding another.
I know that Frank Kenna Sr. helped some workers through personal hardships, without ever expecting any payback.
At this time, Frank Kenna Sr. was getting up in years, with health problems.
About 2004/2006, the company was quietly put up for sale, because there was no one within the Kenna family that had both the desire and experience to step forward to take over the company. Even throughout the sale negotiations with Cerberus/Remington, Frank Kenna Sr. was very concerned about the welfare of all his employee’s.
Frank's son, Frank Kenna Jr. was already running a successful electronic media news company called The Marlin Company. Others in the family were all comfortably successful in other fields.
Due to these things, the company was put up for sale and Cerberus made a low ball offer to just to get negotiations started— the rest is history.