Joseph Kahn

Who was Joseph Kahn?

Joseph Kahn, was a shipping industry executive who served as the chairman of Seatrain Lines, an innovator in the way ships carried freight.

Kahn immigrated to the United States in 1930 from the Soviet Union. Kahn enlisted in the United States Army at the beginning of World War II, ascending through the ranks from private to first lieutenant.

He had worked for Kahn Brother and Pinto, the family fur business, which he left in 1950 to start Transeastern Associates, which started with the purchase of a surplus World War II-era Liberty ship and had expanded into ownership of 36 bulk cargo carriers. Transeastern was created together with Howard Pack, another furrier who was also looking to get out of the family fur business and start something new.

Both Kahn and Pack had been in the fur trade before turning to shipping, though they had not been associated in the fur business. Asked about the fur connection after their 1965 purchase of Seatrain, Kahn answered that "there may be a moral in this, but I don't know what it is".