Evert Wendell

Evert Wendell was a top track athlete when he attended Harvard. While at Harvard he won six titles in athletics at the IC4A Championships. In 1879 he was champion at 220 yards and in 1881 at both 100 and 220 yards. In 1880, however, he won the only triple in IC4A history, winning the 100, 220, and 440 yard titles. He was also prominent in theatre at Harvard. After graduation he joined his father’s firm, Jacob Wendell & Co., a woolen commission merchant, and stayed with them until his father died in 1898. He became known for his philanthropic work, especially for underprivileged boys in New York. From 1890 until his death he was a member of the board of managers of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, and served as secretary of the board from 1900-17. He also served on the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Children’s Aid Society and, at his death, the Children’s Aid Society instituted the “Evert Jansen Wendell Memorial Fund” as a permanent endowment for the Brace Memorial Farms School in Valhalla, New York. Wendell was made a member of the IOC in 1911 and served until his death. An amateur actor, he performed in numerous charitable endeavors with the Amateur Comedy Club. In August 1917 he sailed for France to establish a fund for American aviators and to represent Harvard in the formation of the American University Union in Paris, and died at the American Hospital in Neuilly on that trip. Wendell never married.