Kennedy Tank and Manufacturing Co., Inc

1998 marked the centennial anniversary of Kennedy Tank & Manufacturing Company. In 1898, Patrick Washington Kennedy, an expert journeyman boilermaker, began repairing boilers and fabricating steel products under his own name. In about 1915, his son, William E. Kennedy, joined the company and steered the manufacturing side of the business toward gasoline tanks for filling stations for the automobile. Underground and aboveground tanks for fueling automobiles and boiler repair were staples for Kennedy Tank for the next fifty years. In 1937, William E. Kennedy Sr. opened Southern Tank and Manufacturing Co., Inc. in Owensboro, Kentucky to complement Kennedy Tank and to pursue tank business in the southern region of the Midwest.

William E. Kennedy Jr. joined the family owned firm in the mid-1940’s and lead the continued growth pattern for almost 50 years. Soon after he began, the company began to steer toward designing and building more engineering intensive storage tanks and ASME pressure vessels. In 1952, William E. Kennedy Jr. opened Steel Tank & Fabricating Corp. in Columbia City, Indiana to pursue tank business in the northern region of the Midwest.

The 1960’s brought the addition of expanded field services in the erection of large diameter field tanks on our customer’s sites. The 1960’s and 1970’s brought an expansion of the boiler repair business to include high powered utility boilers. This focus continues today, as the Kennedy Tank Field Group provides 24/7 full service boiler and mechanical maintenance for utility and industrial power generation plants throughout the Midwest region of the United States. The 1970’s also brought more fabrication diversity with tanks and vessels produced with a variety of alloys.

In 1978, Patrick William Kennedy joined the family owned business and in 1993 became the 4th generation Kennedy family member to lead the company and continues to do so. The mid-1980’s brought the addition of designing and fabricating shell and tube heat exchangers for a variety of industrial applications. Over the past 20 years, Kennedy Tank has expanded capacities significantly, where steel fabrications of over 200 feet in length and weighing as much as 250,000 pounds are not abnormal.