The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1919-11-15
BELL TELEPHONE COMPANY
ELECTS NEW PRESIDENT.
Mr.. L. X. kinnard's Rise In This Cor
poration Has Been Notable.

AT a special meeting of the Board
of Directors of The Bell Telephone
Company of Pennsylvania and The
Delaware & Atlantic Telegraph & Tel
ephone Company held in Philadelphia,
Leonard II. Kinnard, of Philadelphia,
was elected President OF the Company.
Mr.. Kinnard's rise in the Bell or
ganization has been most notable.
From the pioneering days when he
first Joined that organization as a
clerk in the Office O, the then Pennsyl-
vania Telephone Company at Harris
burg, every new cycle of the business
has marked conspicuous advancement
for him. Following virtual apprentice
ships served at various cities in the
central part of the State, Mr.. Kinnard
was successfully Division Superintend-
ent, General Superintendent and Gen
eral Manager of the Pennsylvania Tel
ephone Company. Upon the c~onsolida-
ton of the Bell Companies in this sec
ton in January of 1908, he came to.
Philadelphia as General Contract
Agent of the larger organization,
known as The Bell Telephone Com
pany of Pennsylvania and Associated
Companies, embracing the operation
OF Bell property throughout Pennsyl-
vania. Delaware, Maryland, District of
Columbia, and portions of Southern
New Jersey, West Virginia and Ohio.
In 1912 he was elected Vice-Presi-
dent and General Manager of the pres
ent so-called Pennsylvania Group of
Companies, becoming, as such, the res
ident head of the System in Pennsyl-
vania, Delaware and Southern New
Jersey. And the present action of the
Directors establishes him as chief ex-
ecutive of the System. During the
years of the war, in this section of the
country wherein were concentrated as
nowhere else IN Unprecedented gov
ernmental and industrial activity, the
demands of the Companies under MI.
Kinnard's immediate administration
called for a tremendous degree of en-
terprise and a%stuteness in the eXer-
else of that administration, especially
in view of the fact that in addition to
the operators who as volunteers serv-
ed the Government in the camps and
overseas, there were fourteen hundred
men of the organization with the col
ors when hostilities ceased.
Despite the pressure of his other
duties during the war, Mr.. Kinnard
was prominently identified with num-
erous committee works, not the least
that of the Committee of National De
Tense of the Philadelphia Chamber of
Commerce. of which he was Vice
Chairman, and the Philadelphia Advis-
DRY Committee on the Purchase of
Army Supplies. The First Telegraph
Battalion Cater the 406th) of the Am
erican Expeditionary Force was or
ganized by Mr.. Kinnard from the men
of his companies, and saw nearly two
years of service in France. being the
first such unit to land on foreign soil
and having the task of furnishing the
principal lines of telephone commune
cation from the headquarters of the
Commander-in-Chief
Mr.. Kinnard, who resides at Wynne-
wood, Pa, is a member of the Rae
quet, Engineers, Manufacturers, City
and Merton Cricket Clubs of Philadel-
phia, The Pennsylvania Society, and
numerous civic and engineering organ
izations.
John C. Lynch, heretofore General
Superintendent of Traffic of the Sys-
tenn, will succeed Mr.. Kinnard as Vice
President and General Manager, and
James L. Fitzpatrick, Engineer of the
Company, becomes Assistant General
Manager.