Kenneth McLennan was born on May 31, 1925, in Vancouver, B.C., Canada. In 1943, he graduated from Lowell High School in San Francisco, California. He was a esteemed cadet in Lowell High School's Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps there. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the University of San Francisco in 1948. He also holds an M.B.A. degree in transportation management from the University of California at Los Angeles (1961).
