Weaving Histories: An Interview with Award-Winning Author Fred Kennedy
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What do you know about the family surnames adorning the street signs you walk or drive by every day? Or the origins of your favourite brands’ names?
With a few rare exceptions, the memory of the individuals whose work shapes our daily lives continues on in name only, eventually becoming wallpaper we don’t think much about.
In 2018, Fred Kennedy had felt this happening with the legacy of his father, Luis Fred Kennedy. The Kennedy name is now known across the world as the latter half of the GraceKennedy corporation — one of the all-time greatest success stories in Jamaican business. But even still, as Fred says, “history is a funny thing — people forget [the man] very quickly.”
Co-founded by Luis Fred Kennedy’s father in 1922, the Jamaica-based GraceKennedy celebrated 100 years in business in 2022 and is today a publicly traded company with over $1 billion in annual revenue. With a diverse portfolio that includes financial and insurance services, GraceKennedy is a widely known household name at home (and abroad in the Caribbean diaspora) as a food wholesaler. Following the sudden death of his father in 1930, Luis Fred Kennedy spent more than four decades guiding GraceKennedy through tumultuous periods of wartime and political upheaval while establishing a thriving business culture that continues to guide their work and growth to this day.
With the GraceKennedy 100-year anniversary on the horizon, Fred was urged by a friend to take action and ensure his father’s story and impact wouldn’t be forgotten. The result is the award-winning Firstborn. Published with FriesenPress in time for the anniversary celebration in 2022, Firstborn is a meticulously researched book that weaves together the histories of GraceKennedy as a business, Jamaica as a country, and the Kennedy family.
As part of our 15th anniversary celebration, we spoke with Fred about his now award-winning book to learn about Firstborn firsthand — including the rewarding challenges of putting this ambitious book together, the freedom that came from publishing with FriesenPress, and the impact this project has had on his family, GraceKennedy, and readers all over the world:
Firstborn is a book about your father. Who was Luis Fred Kennedy?
He was very much a paradox of a man, and in that way quintessentially human. He was never afraid to laugh or to cry — very down to earth and driven. The reason the book is called Firstborn is that, from a very early age, I think his position in the family as the firstborn defined his character and his role in heading up the company. His father, who was a remarkable man, had founded the company in 1922 along with a medical doctor, Dr. Grace of the W. R. Grace family in New York. My grandfather died unexpectedly when my dad was 21, and that put him in the driver’s seat as a manager and co-manager of the company. From a very young age, he was driven, really, to assume all sorts of responsibilities that he probably wouldn’t have otherwise had.
He was brilliant in his own way. He was the first in his family to attend and graduate from university. In those days, education and schooling in Jamaica were quite limited. He went to a Jesuit college here in Jamaica, St. George’s College, and at age 15 he went to university at Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. It was also a Jesuit institution. He was 19 when he graduated. He always felt that he would have never wished that on anyone else — the boys there were three years older than he was. But I think that helped shape his character, and his exposure to North American culture gave him an advantage in business.
I believe his Jesuit education had a tremendous effect on his approach to life. The Jesuits have been run out of a lot of countries in the world because they stand up against dictatorships and have a mission of social justice. Their belief is that all people should fight for equality and for programs that are going to help people achieve excellence. To me, that philosophy and that orientation were present right through all of the corporate policies that he inaugurated throughout his career. It’s hard to establish a full cause and effect, but I think these are some of the influences really on his character, as well as on the character of the company that he built.
What led you to decide to immortalize your father’s life in Firstborn? Take us through the process of this project going from a germ of an idea to a published book.
I always thought that the story needed to be told. History is a funny thing — people forget very quickly. With the years passing by, his memory in the Jamaican consciousness sort of faded into the background. I’d always read letters to the editor about him in the past, but then when the [100 year] centenary of GraceKennedy was approaching, it seemed to me that something needed to be done to recognize his contributions. He was really at the helm for almost half the age of the company, having joined the company after he graduated in 1928 and retiring in 1976.
I told my friend, Dr. Swithn Wilmot, “I’m going to have to write something in the local papers about him.” He said, “No, Fred, he deserves way more than that.” That was in 2018, and that was the start of the project.
I started by making lists of people who had known him, and then started interviewing them. I also got permission from GraceKennedy to have access to their archives to minutes of all the board meetings that went back to 1922. That was a rich, rich source of information, as you can imagine. Those minutes tell a lot.
And FriesenPress was amazing — my team never wanted to hold themselves to a publication date. [Laughs] Publishing is unpredictable in that way. The book hadn't been completed, but your company was able to publish one copy in time for the annual GraceKennedy Lecture in 2022— with much pride — I brought that to the annual GraceKennedy lecture in 2022 for them to display. It was a very proud moment. Official publication date was probably three weeks after that.
Publishing with FriesenPress was an amazing, amazing experience. I published two books prior to this, but it was done through conventional publishing. You don't really have much control over what publishers do with your manuscript. In fact, I felt one of the most uncomfortable things is signing over the exclusive rights to publish. You really let go of your own work in traditional publishing, but with FriesenPress it was a completely different experience. The author is part of the production, and ends up with 100% royalties and no restrictions on licensing. It's a marvelous concept.
In addition to Firstborn, you’ve written two books of historical fiction. What was it like switching gears, in a way, and writing about someone so close to you?
I enjoyed writing all of the books, but this one, as you can imagine, was special because it was close to my heart. And once I’d started, I knew I would finish because I was fully engaged. Because it’s not about me; it’s about my dad, from my point of view. I discovered things about myself and my relationship with my dad that probably I wouldn’t have fully realized had I not done the research.
It wasn't easy to do, but it was fun because I interwove my family — it really started off as a family history. It's also about business, and it is also historical because the story of the family and the company are contextualized in the historical events of that period of my dad’s life from 1908 to 1982. A lot happened during that time. And then I went back a bit in time and started with my great-grandfather and then ended with an afterword that would show the succession of management at GraceKennedy in present time, because I think that's an important feature of centenarian companies. They have a strong investment in succession, making sure that those who follow in the footsteps of the retiring CEO have the same values and the same skills that are going to guarantee future success.
What are some things you learned about your dad during the writing and research processes? Did anything surprise you?
I didn't realize how much of a public figure he was in the early days during the [Second World War]. Prior to that, after getting married, my mother returned with him from New York to Jamaica and he faced incredible conditions in Jamaica. I didn't realize that he had put himself right into the fray. GraceKennedy owned the Grace wharf and were agents for shipping lines. He was very much a fighter. Labour strife was difficult during those periods. People were receiving starvation wages, and there was a large movement that marked the beginning of trade unionism. That was all new to Jamaica in the 1930s — and worldwide, actually. He played a pivotal role, being on the side of the employer. He made sure to negotiate with those who were forming the unions because he believed in the rights of the labourer. With politicians, he formed many influential accords that settled labour disputes in Jamaica.
I also had access to the archives of the Jamaica Gleaner, which is the major newspaper in Jamaica. When you type in my dad’s name, hundreds and hundreds of references come up because he was so [often] in the public sphere and a very strong voice for merchants and the government as well. During the war, he played an important role — he spoke Spanish because his mother was Spanish, and the government used his skills to set up business connections with Santiago in Cuba. During wartime, U-boats were in the Caribbean and trade was blocked off. He was able to negotiate the transport of goods from the Carolinas and Florida to the northern parts of Cuba. And then these were brought across by rail to Santiago, which is one of the southern ports. GraceKennedy arranged for ships to bring those food supplies into Jamaica during the war. It is a fascinating story, really.
Your grandfather co-founded GraceKennedy in the 1920s and you mentioned that your father became involved in the business in 1930. What did the Jamaica of that era look like, and how did it evolve over his tenure?
Anyone who reads the history of Jamaica would, I think, be shocked at what the living conditions were like in the 1930s. The British really did not pay attention to establishing schools and universities, different from some of the Spanish colonies, in that respect. The majority of people did not attend school. 70% of school aged children in the 1930s were out of school and the illiteracy rate was extremely high.
The most turbulent period in its history was the 1970s. Michael Manley was elected in 1972 with the best intentions of addressing Jamaica’s colonial mentality of dependence on Europe and the United States. Jamaica needed to come into its own, but Manley went about it in such a way that he frightened private enterprise. It changed Jamaica forever. A lot of his programmes — literacy programmes, free university tuition, the cooperatives he set up for farmers — improved the lot of the average individual. But Jamaica couldn’t afford what he was paying for. My dad used to say, “Capital is a funny animal — it scares easily.” You don’t have to say much before people start running to protect what they own. And that’s what happened. There was a huge brain drain in the 1970s. Professionals fled the country to Miami (especially), and Atlanta and Toronto. And that, of course, left Jamaica even more impoverished; by 1980, it really was on the brink of collapse.
But Jamaica has come a long, long way. We have several universities now. We even have, I understand, a labour shortage. Most important of all is educating a high percentage of the population. I have always thought that education is the foundation of building a nation; if people aren’t educated, they won’t have employability skills. Human capital is, I believe, the basis of a prosperous nation.
Your family history and personal remembrances are key features of this book, and your daughters have been involved at the book launches at places like the Jamaican consulate in New York City. What has Firstborn meant to your family?
You can imagine being the head of a family company that he would face conflicts between family members. You just have to read about family companies around the world, and GraceKennedy was not an exception. It was difficult capturing all this in Firstborn. And yet, when the book was published, the number of emails and phone calls and responses [from relatives] saying, “Thank you for writing this family history”...it was just amazing.
My sister Mary held my hand through this whole thing. There were five of us and she's the only surviving sibling. Of course, she bought copies for all her children. From the family point of view, it is definitely the story of the legacy of the Kennedy family that had not been recorded before. What surprised me, though, is that it has had an appeal beyond family. I won a gold award from the Nonfiction Authors Association in California. It became obvious that the story has international appeal; there are people not connected to GraceKennedy or to the family who see value in the story. And there was a huge positive reaction from GraceKennedy itself. They consider it an important part of their own story and history.
Can you speak a little more about the support of this book from the company? What has that meant to you?
It means a lot. I'm in an odd position because I went a different path. I was an academic and I worked for the company for only a few summers; my passion was elsewhere. I went into teaching and became a principal; it was a different route. I'm connected to the company because of the family, but I'm not an employee. The book was very well received. It says a lot because, typical of GraceKennedy, the company reaches back into its history too, to search for those kinds of values that define the enterprise and its DNA. I think this book helped to elucidate some of those principles.
What are you most proud of with regards to this book?
I was just leafing through it before I came on [this call], and what impressed me was the span that it covers — 50 or 60 years of the history of Jamaica and the history of the business. When I look back, it’s the scope of the work and the ability that I had to work in the story of our family.
When I started out, I had relatives saying that it was just too complex, or that I’d never be able to tell the full story. But it’s like anything in life: when people tell me I can’t do something, it makes me stubborn and it makes me want to do it even more. [laughs]
What I've learned is — and it's amazing the number of people who don't believe it — we all have a story to tell. We all want to leave that legacy because when we pass, if things aren't recorded, they get lost. Nothing is permanent, but I guess books come close to achieving some of that permanence, right?
Absolutely. We’re celebrating 15 years in the publishing industry, and look forward to at least 15 more. What do you hope the future brings for Fred Kennedy — in writing or otherwise?
I am getting on in age, and it takes me a long time to write a book. I pushed myself with this one: I started in 2018 and finished in 2022. The first two books [of historical fiction I published] were six years apart; the first one was 2008 and the second was 2014. I was halfway through a book when this project came up. Because the centenary deadline was approaching, I put a hold on it; I’ve since gone back to it.
It's another historical fiction of Jamaica, and it actually connects to Canada. It's the story of the Maroons in Jamaica, who were runaway slaves. 500 of them were tricked by the British governor in 1796 and shipped to Nova Scotia. The leader of the Maroon rebellion, Montague James, said he could never live anywhere where “the pineapple could not grow.” They froze themselves in Nova Scotia and couldn't believe that anywhere in the world could be as cold as this place ‘Canada’. They negotiated with the governor of Nova Scotia, and later with England, to transport them back to Africa. They became residents of the first colony of freed Africans to form Freetown — today the capital of Sierra Leone. That is the story that I'm telling now, and it's called Where the Pineapple Could Not Grow.
