Carl M. KalhornSales Manager, San Francisco office
Source: Marine Digest, July 22, 1972
Author's personal collection
Source: Marine Digest, July 22, 1972
Author's personal collection
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my father, Carl M. Kalhorn, who loved the sea and the great merchant ships that sail upon it. He spent eight years working for Japan Line USA, Ltd.
Dad joined JL in 1972, as the sales manager for the San Francisco office. Three years later, the company promoted him to U.S. Gulf Manager in the new Houston, Texas branch, a position he held from 1975-1979. He returned to San Francisco in 1979 to assume his final role as assistant vice president and district manager for Northern California. He left Japan Line's employ at the end of 1980, going on to a new career in household goods forwarding with the Hong Kong-based firm Crown Pacific.
He continued in the freight forwarding business for the remainder of his life, working in Indonesia, Belgium, and the United States. He died in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1995. He was just 55 years old.
U.S. Gulf Manager (Houston, TX)Source: Daily Shipping Guide, February 23, 1976
Author's personal collection
Assistant Vice President/District Manager (San Francisco)Source: Marine Digest, May 12, 1979
Author's personal collection
Near the end of his career with Japan Line, my father gave an interview to newspaper reporter Peter M. Patton. The resulting article, which appeared either in The San Francisco Chronicle or The San Francisco Examiner, describes some of his salient qualities as a man and a manager: ambitious and unassuming, possessing an easy sense of humor yet serious about the quality of his work, and above all, willing to try his hand at anything:
Article on Carl Kalhorn, published 1979(Click images to enlarge)
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle or The San Francisco Examiner
Author's personal collection
1 California StreetLocation of Japan Line's San Francisco office during the 1970s
Source: Flickr.com
Reading this 30-year-old press clipping, I can almost see Dad sitting confidently at his desk with a smile. His eyes would have shone with a certain glint that bespoke alertness and boundless curiosity. And from time to time, I imagine, those eyes would have strayed to the office window to catch glimpses of an always pleasing sight: cargo vessels plying the sunlit waters of San Francisco Bay.
- Robin Kalhorn
