Ken was an industrious young boy and began delivering newspapers at age 12. Soon he had 2 paper routes and quickly began to realize he could make more money if he managed the routes and hired a kid to deliver the papers. The entrepreneur in him was born.

In addition, at age 16, Ken bussed tables at a local restaurant, The Little Red Hen, making .60 a night plus dinner.
This is where his dislike of beets began as they were served with each dinner.

Even with working this much, Ken found time to study and graduated from high school in 1940, 11th in his class of 666 students! Having saved enough money to go to college and having a love of forestry, he decided on the University of Idaho. A rather ambitious choice as it took him 2 days to arrive by train and he couldn’t afford to come home for the holidays.

After his freshman year, Ken returned to Rhode Island and worked to earn money for the next year of college. Deciding Idaho was a bit too far; he enrolled at the University of Maine. The Second World War had begun and Ken had joined the army being told he would not be called to serve until after he finished college. After one semester and one month, he was called up for active duty.

Although he’d never flown in a plane before, he chose the Army Air Corp. because he figured it was safer up in the air than on the ground. Becoming green from motion sickness when he finished his first flight, he almost wasn’t accepted into the corp.

While training at an army air base in Syracuse, he was reassigned (gratefully) from a bombardier to transport planes with the Fifth Combat Cargo Squadron. Syracuse is where he met the love of his life, Madeline. They became engaged before he was sent to the South Pacific and Australia. His squadron was one of the first to land in Japan at the end of the war to assist with the safe return of POW’s to the Philippines.

In 1946, Ken and Madeline were married, had 2 adorable children, Sandy and Susan and remained married for a record 62 years!

Ken continued his studies and graduated Cum Laude from the New York College of Forestry at Syracuse University and completed his Master of Science in Wood Technology also at Syracuse.

After several years of working for companies such as General Electric and McDowell Lumber Company, the entrepreneurial spirit re-emerged. Borrowing $300 from his father-in-law, Ken bought the Thompson Box Company in 1961. The first week of business he had just enough money to pay his 2 employees. At the time of his retirement in 1992, they employed 100. The business was renamed McIntosh Box and Pallet and after 50 years in business and 2 new owners, retains its name to this day.

Ken loved Syracuse but Madeline love California so they split their time between the two. In 2000, Madeline won and they sold their home in Syracuse to live full time in San Diego. When Madeline passed away in 2008, Ken had full intentions of returning to Syracuse but was diagnosed with stage-4 esophageal cancer and his daughters convinced him to move to Irvine for treatment. Miraculously he beat the cancer and was deemed in remission after only 6 chemotherapy treatments.

Ken was an Easterner at heart but admitted he was glad he stayed close to his daughters. Sandy and Susan are grateful for the gift of these last 2 years where he lived 2 miles of them and they had many good times together before he passed away from heart disease on October 3rd.