Albert Bond Lambert
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2020) |
![]() | |||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Born | St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. | December 6, 1875||||||||||||||
Died | November 12, 1946 St. Louis, Missouri | (aged 70)||||||||||||||
Resting place | Bellefontaine Cemetery | ||||||||||||||
Alma mater | Smith Academy at Washington University in St. Louis | ||||||||||||||
Children | George Lea Lambert, Albert Bond Lambert Jr. | ||||||||||||||
Parent | Jordan W. Lambert | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
Albert Bond Lambert (December 6, 1875 – November 12, 1946) was an American businessman. He was the president of Lambert Pharmacal Company, marketer of Listerine, for over 25 years. He was also a keen amateur golfer and prominent St. Louis aviator and benefactor of aviation.[1]
Early life
[edit]He was son of Jordan W. Lambert, founder of Lambert Pharmacal Company, which marketed Listerine. He initially studied at the University of Virginia and became president of the family business in 1896. He became chairman in 1923 and stepped down in 1926 when it was acquired by another firm.[2]
Golf
[edit]In October 1900, Lambert competed in the golf competitions held as part of the Exposition Universelle in Paris. He finished eighth in the men's championship competition, later classified as part of the 1900 Summer Olympics, and won the handicap competition.[3][4]
Four years later he was part of the American team which won the silver medal, making Lambert the only golfer to have competed in both Olympic golf tournaments prior to the sport's long hiatus from 1908 to 2016. He finished 12th in this competition. In the individual competition he finished eighth in the qualification and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the match play.
Aviation
[edit]![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Albert_Bond_Lambert_lifted_by_a_kite_at_the_Forest_Park_airfield.jpg/220px-Albert_Bond_Lambert_lifted_by_a_kite_at_the_Forest_Park_airfield.jpg)
In 1906 he became interested in aviation and took ballooning lessons. In 1907 he was one of the founders of the Aero Club of St. Louis. (The Club used "military" titles; hence Lambert's title "Major.") He attended the Smith Academy at Washington University in St. Louis
In 1909, Lambert met the Wright Brothers, and purchased his first airplane from them. He took flying lessons from Orville Wright, and in 1911 became the first St. Louis resident to hold a pilot's license. During World War I, he served in the Aviation Section of the United States Army Signal Corps, as an instructor in ballooning and parachuting.
In 1926, a young Charles Lindbergh visited this home while looking for financial support for his proposed transatlantic flight. Lambert offered financial support to Lindbergh and encouraged others to do the same. In return for this financial support, Lindbergh's plane was named The Spirit of St. Louis. Furthermore, St. Louis' Lambert Airport was later named after Albert Bond Lambert.
In 1925, for $68,000, Lambert purchased Kinloch Field of Kinloch, Missouri, a 170-acre (0.69 km2) field northwest of St. Louis, which had been used for hot air balloon ascensions and the first international air meet.
Lambert, at his own expense, developed the field with runways and hangars. In 1927 he was one of the St. Louis committee of backers of Charles Lindbergh's purchasing of his airplane The Spirit of St. Louis for his epoch-making transatlantic solo trip to Paris. Lindbergh was at the time a resident of St. Louis as well as an airmail pilot flying the mail between St. Louis and Chicago. The following year, 1928, Lambert sold the field to the city of St. Louis for $68,000, the same price he had paid for it before making improvements. St. Louis Lambert International Airport thus became one of the first municipal airports in the nation.
Family
[edit]Lambert was married to Myrtle McGrew, daughter of the George F. McGrews of St. Louis. They had a daughter, Myrtle and sons, Albert Bond Lambert Jr., Don L. Lambert[5] and George Lea Lambert. George, a pilot instructor, died in an airplane accident on July 29, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri.[6]
Residence
[edit]2 Hortense Place was the Lamberts' home in St. Louis, Missouri.
The Albert Bond Lambert House is a red-brick and symmetrical mansion which has a two-story portico with columns.[7] The nearly 12,000 square foot Neoclassical-style home was designed by noted architect George W. Hellmuth and was built between 1902 and 1903.[8] It has 6 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms.[9] Before construction, its cost was estimated to be $45,000 (equivalent to $1,584,692 in 2023).[10] This home was constructed just before the 1904 World's Fair. The King of Sweden also visited this house with the fireplace in the solarium apparently being a gift from the king.[11]
References
[edit]- ^ "Albert Bond Lambert". Olympedia. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ Christensen, Lawrence O. (1999). Dictionary of Missouri Biography. University of Missouri Press. p. 469. ISBN 0-8262-1222-0.
- ^ "Albert Bond Lambert, St. Louis Millionaire, A Golf Winner In France". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. October 4, 1900. p. 1. Retrieved February 16, 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
- ^ Concours internationaux d'exercices physiques et de sports (in French). 1901. pp. 77–79.
- ^ "Widow of Pioneer St. Louis Airman, Maj. Lambert, Dies". St. Louis Globe-Democrat. August 23, 1954. p. 3A – via newspapers.com.
- ^ "George Lambert, Passenger, Killed As Plane Crashes". Alton Evening Telegraph. Illinois. Associated Press. July 29, 1929. p. 1 – via newspapers.com.
- ^ Nini Harris (2018). This Used to Be St. Louis. St. Louis, MO: Reedy Press, LLC. pp. 41–42. 9781681061139.
- ^ "2 Hortense Place". Retrieved December 27, 2019.
- ^ "2 Hortense Place St Louis, MO 63108 — Hortense, St Louis City County". Retrieved December 27, 2019.
- ^ "Building Intelligence". The American Architect and Building News. November 8, 1902.
- ^ "2 Hortense Place, St Louis". October 16, 2019. Retrieved December 27, 2019.
External links
[edit]- Al Lambert at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Albert Bond Lambert at Olympics.com
- Albert Bond Lambert at earlyaviators.com
- History of St. Louis Lambert International Airport
- Lambert and Orville Wright sitting aboard a Wright A-B transitional aircraft c.1910 original version Corbis(Wayback Machine archived)
- "Lambert and Orville Wright, 1910(Wayback Machine)". Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Retrieved June 24, 2012.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - Albert Bond Lambert at Find a Grave
- American male golfers
- Golfers at the 1900 Summer Olympics
- Golfers at the 1904 Summer Olympics
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in golf
- Medalists at the 1904 Summer Olympics
- Golfers from St. Louis
- American aviators
- Members of the Early Birds of Aviation
- Smith Academy (Missouri) alumni
- Burials at Bellefontaine Cemetery
- People from Ladue, Missouri
- 1875 births
- 1946 deaths
- 20th-century American sportsmen
- 19th-century American sportsmen