John A. Kennedy (Illinois politician)

Kennedy was born on December 29, 1921, in Chicago. He attended Lane Tech College Prep High School[1] and received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering degree from Northwestern University.[2]

Kennedy served in the United States Navy as an engineer from 1943 to 1946. He served at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1943, working on the Manhattan Project.[2][1] He then served in the Pacific for two years repairing electronics.[2]

After the war, Kennedy worked for Motorola from 1946 to 1949. He then founded James Electronics, a manufacturer of electronic components.[2]

Kennedy served on numerous boards, including those of the St. Elizabeth's, St. Anne's, and St. Francis hospitals. He was a trustee at Barat College and at Northwestern's Technological Institute.[1]

In 1962, Kennedy ran for Illinois's 13th congressional district, but lost to Republican candidate Donald Rumsfeld.[1] Kennedy was the co-founder and vice-chairman of the Winnetka Democratic Club.[2]

Kennedy was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in the 1964 election,[2] which was held at-large due to the legislature's failure to redistrict. Kennedy was nominated for the Democratic Party's ticket due to his name's similarity to the recently-slain John F. Kennedy, to whom he was unrelated.[3]

Kennedy chaired Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 Task Force on Intergovernmental Information. He also helped create Illinois's Management Information Division during his time in the legislature.[1]

Kennedy ran for Illinois's 1st Senate district in the 1966 Illinois Senate election, but lost to the Republican incumbent W. Russell Arrington.[4][5]

Kennedy lived in Winnetka, Illinois. He had four sons and five daughters with his wife Mary Ann Bremner.[1][2] He died on August 17, 1997, at the Saint Francis Hospital of Evanston.[1]