John M. Marlin was born in Connecticut in 1836. During the Civil War, he worked at the Colt plant in Hartford, and in 1870 hung out his sign on State Street, New Haven, manufacturing his own line of revolvers and derringers.When John Marlin died in 1901, his two sons took over the business and began a diversification program. In 1915, during World War I, a New York syndicate bought the company and renamed it the Marlin Rockwell Corporation. Marlin became one of the largest machine gun producers in the world for the US and its Allies. After the War, the sporting firearms part of the business became a new corporation, which staggered until 1923, when it went on the auction block.The story is told that the auction of the old Marlin Firearms operation in 1924 was attended by several curious children, a small dog and a lawyer named Frank Kenna. Kenna bid $100 and the properties were his − along with a $100,000 mortgage. The Marlin Firearms Company has been owned and run by the Kennas ever since, and has seen constant change and improvements. Kenna re-introduced several of the models famous before World War I, and in 1936 established the Marlin razor blade business. His eldest son, Roger Kenna, assumed the presidency in 1947 and Marlin enjoyed steady growth until his death in 1959. When his brother, Frank Kenna, Jr. took over as President. Razor blade production was gradually phased out in order to focus attention on sporting firearms. Frank Kenna, Jr. became Chairman in 1995, and Roger's son, Stephen Kenna, formerly Vice President of Operations and General Counsel, became President. In 1997 he left to pursue other interests. Robert Behn assumed the presidency in May of 1997 and continued in that role until the end of 2007 when the company was sold to the Remington Arms Company.
