Invoice Kennedy in 2020. Roast / Each day Espresso Information photograph.
San Franciscan Roaster Co. introduced the demise of proprietor, president and CEO Invoice Kennedy, a former college principal who later championed small roasters and U.S. manufacturing.
“The lack of Invoice is past phrases,” the corporate mentioned in an announcement yesterday. “He was not solely a pacesetter in our trade, however a real legend. His ardour, craftsmanship and deep data formed numerous roasters and low firms — our personal included.”
Kennedy, who was primarily based in Carson Metropolis, Nevada, is survived by his spouse and 6 kids. He handed away unexpectedly this week, DCN has confirmed.
San Franciscan Roaster Co. mentioned it plans to honor Kennedy’s life by “carrying on what he constructed — persevering with to craft artisan roasters as he would anticipate.”
Schooling Meets Engineering
Earlier than coming into roaster manufacturing, Kennedy spent roughly twenty years in public schooling, first as a trainer then as a center college principal. He studied industrial administration at LeTourneau College, graduating in 1985, a background that later knowledgeable his method to each engineering and operating a small industrial enterprise.
Kennedy bought Espresso PER Inc., the producer of San Franciscan roasters, from San Franciscan founder Sherman Dodd in 2008.
Below Kennedy’s management, the corporate emphasised simplicity and sturdiness in its machine design, boasting mild-carbon metal drums, U.S.-mined and -milled sheet metallic, and U.S.-sourced bearings, motors and electrical parts. Kennedy led the growth of the producer’s product line past the SF-1 and SF-6 machines to the bigger SF-10, SF-25 and SF-75.
Throughout that point, Kennedy additionally developed a status amongst purchasers and trade colleagues as a sort and keen educator, and fierce champion of small roasting firms.
“I had the pleasure of realizing and dealing with Invoice since he acquired San Franciscan Roasters. His relentless assist of the trade and his pursuit to assist anybody and everybody will likely be his lasting legacy,” Roast journal founder and writer Connie Blumhardt mentioned. “All the time towering excessive above me and everybody else, his large character, his large smile, his real kindness and his superb snicker will at all times stick with me.”
Supporting the Business
One instance of behind-the-scenes assist that cemented Kennedy’s status as a mentor in addition to a producer got here in 2016, shortly after the headquarters of Bald Man Brew in North Carolina was destroyed in a fireplace. Kennedy then provided to pay for Bald Man Brew Proprietor Don Cox’s pursuit of Q Grader certification throughout the downtime as the corporate’s roastery was rebuilt.
“He’s a high quality man who will stroll with you thru thick and skinny,” Cox, who developed a coaching curriculum with Kennedy and now operates a fleet of San Franciscan machines, advised DCN. “He cherished the lord, cherished his household, cherished folks and he cherished espresso. It was by no means misplaced on anyone the place his coronary heart was. He led with it.”
Inside the trade, Kennedy was often called being readily accessible for service, assist and steerage.
“Two lengthy key chats in Invoice’s workplace gave me the boldness, swagger and pleasure to take the massive step of going all in on roasting and relaunching a legacy model,” Steven Horn, the proprietor of an SF-25 machine and Laughing Cat Espresso in Reno, advised Each day Espresso Information. “Invoice’s calming, quiet and sometimes hilarious steerage was at all times embraced, appreciated and valued properly past the phrases. He had a means of creating you’re feeling seen, heard and someway even protected.”
In 2025, Kennedy mixed quite a few skilled passions because the host of San Franciscan’s Espresso Roasting Legends podcast, billed as a collection by which a “espresso trade veteran” interviews figures who’ve “formed the espresso roasting trade.”
Because the espresso trade mourns Kennedy’s demise, the numerous classes he shared are sure to stay on in roasteries everywhere in the world.
“He had a uncommon reward for educating, whether or not it was the artwork of roasting or a lesson pulled from historical past, at all times shared with heat, curiosity and objective,” San Franciscan wrote. “His knowledge, generosity and unmistakable snicker touched everybody lucky sufficient to know him.”
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