James Lehr Kennedy

James Lehr Kennedy passed away on Tuesday, February 15, 2022 after a courageous fight with cancer. He is survived by his brother, Stephen and his family, wife, Betsy and their children, Stephen and Nancy.

Jim grew up in Needham, MA and graduated from Needham High School. He then earned a BS in Economics from The College of Wooster. Jim continued on to earn a Master's in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration from The Ohio State University. In 2017 he received an honorary Doctorate from Ohio Northern University.

In 1973 he started working at the Ohio Power Siting Board, an entity responsible for approving public utility applications for the construction of electric power plants and natural gas pipelines. Jim took pride that he personally testified before the Siting Board that additional power plants were not necessary based on the actual usage of electricity by Ohio consumers, ultimately saving Ohio utility customers nearly eight billion dollars.

Jim's experience and ingenuity led him to start Twenty First Century Communications which utilized interactive voice response systems to determine where utilities had power outages. TFCC would ultimately serve 70 of all utility customers in the U.S.

Jim was also a talented glass blower. In 1990 along with two OSU students he formed Glass Axis, a non-profit public glass blowing studio in Columbus. After receiving a special request from a friend, he was inspired to form 'Crystal Remembrance', a memorial company that produced glass artwork combined with human or pet cremains.

Jim's great grandfather founded Ohio Northern University and Jim served on the ONU board of trustees for many years. In 2017 the College of Engineering at ONU named the engineering building in his honor.

The family wishes to thank Ellen Brown, his assistant and friend, for the care and compassion she showed Jim in his final days.

A brother, uncle, friend, entrepreneur, author, inventor and philanthropist. Jim will be greatly missed by his family and friends.

A private burial will be held at the family plot in Needham, MA. Due to COVID a celebration of life will be held at a later time. Family has entrusted SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST with arrangements. Please keep checking here for future service details.