James Kenney Jr., 92; Telephone Executive, Head of Local United Way

James E. Kenney Jr., a longtime executive at Pacific Telephone and Telegraph who also headed the United Way in Los Angeles in the 1970s, has died. He was 92.

Kenney, who had been in failing health since falling at home in May, died Wednesday at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, according to his nephew Jim Kainz.

A native of Los Angeles, Kenney attended the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. He started at Pacific Telephone in 1931 in the mailroom of its Los Angeles headquarters and, after serving in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, returned to the company. By the time he retired in 1977, he was vice president and general manager of Pacific Telephone’s Southern California region, with responsibility for 50,000 employees.

Long active in community affairs, he was appointed by then-Gov. Ronald Reagan to the Little Hoover Commission in 1967. Two years later, he headed the Committee for Quality Schools, a citizens group supporting the Los Angeles school district’s bond and tax measures.

Kenney was named president of the local United Way in 1974. He had previously been a member of the agency’s board of directors and its executive committee, as well as chairman of the corporate agency relations committee.

In addition to Kainz, Kenney is survived by another nephew and a niece.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated today at noon at Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 505 N. Bedford Drive, Beverly Hills.