The Kent family moved to Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1881, where they lived at four different locations. His father was a doctor who had also been a machinist. The father maintained a machine shop in Worcester when Arthur was a child. Kent entered Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s freshman mechanical engineering class in the fall of 1895. He was elected treasurer of the class of 1899, but only remained in the position for one semester, because he did not attend recitation classes after the mid-year exams in January. Kent excelled in mechanics and drawing, but was weak in chemistry, algebra, and language, and had no interest in these subjects. He was already running a small business and that was his top priority. His business was called the Kent Electric Manufacturing Company, which he began in the back room of his father’s machine shop, and from which he sold small electric motors, generators, fans, and later automobile ignition systems. The Unisparker Ignition systems became the automobile industry standard for almost 50 years, until the advent of the HEI systems.