Kennon Transport CEO pens book about his life as runaway

FORMER RUNAWAY: A former run-away, himself, Kennon Transport President and CEO Michael Kennon is committed to helping runaway children and teens, one at a time.

By DOROTHY COX
The Trucker Staff

2/9/2009

If you go to the Web site of Kennon Transport (main offices in Charleston, S.C., and Crystal Lake, Ill.), you’ll see this story: “A boy was throwing starfish back into the ocean and a man walked up to him and said, 'you know it won’t matter if you throw them back ’cause there will be hundreds more that wash up again tomorrow', and the boy continued to throw another one and turned to him and said, ‘it mattered to that one.’”

Kennon Transport President and CEO Michael Kennon is committed to helping runaway children and teens, one at a time. He knows it matters to each one because he was a runaway, himself, off and on from age 12 until early adulthood.

His recently published book, “Memoirs of a Runaway: A Story of Hope,” tells the story: his father’s death when he was only 10; a physically and emotionally abusive step-dad; his bouts with hyper-activity and allergies; his drug addictions; his early fascination with fast cars and his consistent love of trucking.

Kennon told The Trucker he wants truckers and trucking companies to be informed about the problem. In his research Kennon found the troubling statistic that 1 million to 3 million children are on the road in the U.S. and that it’s estimated one in seven children will run away at some time.

In fact, it was one of the countless times he had run away from home in 1976 when Kennon was exposed to trucking a few months before his 15th birthday. He was living in a car, begging money to buy food from churches and looking for jobs, but no one would hire the 14-year-old.

He was picked up by an owner-operator who told him: “I’m not supposed to take riders but if you’ll duck into the sleeper at the scales I’ll take you as far as I can.” Unfortunately, the trucker’s motives were not entirely pure, as he made sex-ual advances to Kennon that night in the bunk.

But he did back off when the youngster asked him to, and he taught Kennon how to drive an 18-wheeler, a skill which would pro-vide his livelihood for years to come.

He started Kennon Transport in 1988, after bantering with a dispatcher who suggested he become his own agent.

“I had never thought about becoming an agent but I love to talk to people and I knew the industry very well. So on the way home I called friends and people I had worked with and people were very encouraging; one even lent me the money to start up my own office,” remembered Kennon, who was only 27 at the time. “The rest,” he said, “is history.”

Kennon Transport, LLC specializes in moving heavy equipment, machinery and other flat-bed, dropdeck or doubledrop material and has over 1,772 owner-operators.

Kennon said he wants the book to be “re-source material that I could hand out that kids could read and relate to and parents, too. I hope with the aid of truckers we can provide aware-ness” of the problem.

He also wants runaways “to know there are other choices, better choices. I want them to know they can have a great life they won’t have to run away from.”

Kennon credits Jesus Christ with finally bringing him peace and stopping him from run-ning away from his problems.

He has forgiven his step-dad and is on good terms with his family.

In fact, it was his 22-year-old daughter who has been a major supporter of his telling it like it is, Kennon said. “She said, ‘kids are smart and you have to be honest.’ … I’m not trying to convince or preach; I just want to tell my story so they [runaways and their parents] will know there’s hope.”

For more information, go to kennontransport.com, outskirtspress.com/memoirs or memoirsofarunaway.com.

Dorothy Cox of The Trucker staff can be reached for comment at dlcox@thetrucker.com.