Although he spent his school years here, Kenneth A. Flanders, manager of the Providence office of the Bradstreet Company, has been engaged in business in Providence for only a few months. Nevertheless, he has made for himself a notable place among the younger business men of the town, for he is possessed of a likable personality and a willingness to cooperate in all worthy enterprises, with the result that he is popular with all who come to know him. A member of both the Providence Rotary Club and the Providence Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Flanders supports the activities of those organizations and is regarded by his fellows as a most valuable addition to the business personnel of the city.
Born in Chilmark, Massachusetts, July 8, 1893, Mr. Flanders is the son of Samuel Howard and Lillian Nancy (Hammett) Flanders, the latter born also at Chilmark. The father, who was born at Gay Head Lighthouse, Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, has been associated for forty-three years with the Bradstreet Company and is now manager of the Hartford office. After spending several years in the West, the Flanders family removed to Providence and in the public schools of this place he received his elementary education. Following his graduation from the Technical High School he enrolled at Brown University where he was accorded a degree of Bachelor of Philosophy with the class of 1917. Mr. Flanders entered the business world in connection with the textile industry at New Bedford, Massachusetts, and in this field he remained until 1926 when he became associated with the Bradstreet Company in Hartford. It was in July, 1928, that he received his appointment as manager of the Providence office and has since been in charge of the company’s offices at Nos. 1017-20 New Industrial Trust Building. His return to Providence after ten years’ absence has made it possible for Mr. Flanders to renew numerous boyhood friendships. While still in the Technical High School, Mr. Flanders was well known in the State as an athlete. He became captain of the high school baseball team in 1912 and played all four years while in college on the Brown University ’varsity nine, receiving recognition as one of the best amateur pitchers in the East. He was popular with his classmates, who elected him secretary of the 1917 graduating class. While he still retains a keen interest in amateur athletics, his favorite forms of recreation now are golf and fishing.
A member of Sigma Nu Fraternity at Brown, Mr. Flanders is affiliated with Abraham H. Howland Lodge, Free and Accepted Masons, of New Bedford, Massachusetts. He attends the Christian Science Church and is Republican in his political allegiance.
On September 20, 1919. Mr. Flanders married Mary Hughes Lavare, born at New Bedford. The three children born to this union are: Kenneth A., Jr., Barbara, and Nancy Elizabeth.
Source: Carroll, Charles. Rhode Island: Three Centuries of Democracy, vol 3 of 4. New York: Lewis historical Pub. Co., 1932.