Kahn enlisted in the United States Army at the beginning of World War II, ascending through the ranks from private to first lieutenant.
[1] He had worked for Kahn Brother and Pinto, the family fur business, which he left in 1950 to start Transeastern Associates, which started with the purchase of a surplus World War II-era Liberty ship and had expanded into ownership of 36 bulk cargo carriers.
[1] Transeastern was created together with Howard Pack, another furrier who was also looking to get out of the family fur business and start something new.
[4] By the time of Kahn's death, Seatrain had expanded into shipbuilding, and had 3,000 employees and annual revenues of $250 million.
[1] Kahn was a longtime critic of what he felt was a failure of the United States government to create a competitive merchant fleet sailing under the US flag.