Kenneth Rodney Bourn, Jr. was the second son of Frances Phillipa Bourn (née Gipson) and Kenneth Rodney Bourn, Sr.

 

Frances Phillipa Gipson

Frances Phillipa Gipson (1906-1990) was the daughter of William Carlos Gipson and Florence R. Gipson  (née Shattuck). Along with his brother Arthur, William Carlos Gipson oversaw Gipson Brothers, a lumber and construction supply company in Brandon and Middlebury, Vermont that had been established by their grandfather. William Carlos Gipson served in the State Legislature in 1927, 1929 and 1935, and was involved in numerous fraternal organizations, including the Killington Commandery of Rutland Knights Templar, the Cairo Temple of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and the Silver Lake Lodge.

Frances grew up in Brandon, Vermont and graduated from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1927. One of Frances’ classmates at Lesley was Roberta Bourn, who introduced Frances to her brother Ken Bourn, Sr. Ken later wooed Frances at a winter picnic at Skunk’s Misery in Templeton, Massachusetts. They married at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Brandon, Vermont on June 20, 1928.

 Kenneth Rodney Bourn, Sr.

Kenneth Rodney Bourn, Sr. (1900-1967) was the son of Robert Turnbull Bourn and Carrie Estelle Cummings. He grew up on a family farm in Templeton, Massachusetts and graduated with a BS in engineering from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1924.

His father, Robert Turnbull Bourn, was involved in the management of Bourn, Hadley, and Company – a furniture company in Templeton that had been in the Bourn family since the early 19th century. Although Robert Turnbull was adept at design, he was a poor manager. The company was eventually sold in 1929 to the Conant Ball Company in the neighboring town of Gardner, and later sold again to the Glenwood Kitchen Company in Framingham, Massachusetts. Following his graduation from Harvard, Ken Bourn, Sr. left Templeton to work for the competition – the Federal Equipment Company in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.