Edward Austin Kent was born in
Bangor, Maine on February 19, 1854, to Harriet Ann Farnham (1830–1908) and Henry Mellen Kent (1823–1894). also a prominent architect who studied under
H. H. Richardson, and Charles Farnham Kent (1856–1878), who died aged 22 in
Denver, Colorado. Kent attended and graduated from
Yale, in 1875, and later the
École des Beaux-Arts, the famous
Beaux-Arts architecture school in Paris. Returning to the U.S. in 1877, he became junior partner in the
Syracuse, New York firm of
Silsbee and Kent. In 1884, he returned to Buffalo and remained there for the rest of his career, helping to found the Buffalo Society of Architects and receiving many prominent commissions, including
Flint & Kent. Until his death, he lived at the Buffalo Club. In 1912, he took a two-month vacation to France and Egypt and planned on retiring after returning home. He decided to delay his trip home so he could travel on the maiden voyage of the new and luxurious ocean liner, the .
Aboard the Titanic Kent traveled as a first-class passenger. He mingled with the other socialites, and with a writers' group which included
Helen Churchill Candee and
Archibald Gracie. He perished when the ship struck an iceberg and sank on the night of April 14–15, 1912. As the ship was sinking, he disregarded his own safety to help women and children into the lifeboats. He was last seen at around 2:20 a.m. making no attempts to save himself as he was swept into the ocean. His body was recovered by the
CS Mackay-Bennett as body No. 258 and claimed by his brother when the ship docked. He was laid to rest in the
Forest Lawn Cemetery in
Buffalo, New York. ==Notable works==