Children George Lea Lambert Role Golfer | Name Albert Lambert Parent(s) Jordan W. Lambert | |
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Born December 6, 1875 ( 1875-12-06 ) St. Louis, Missouri Alma mater Smith Academy at Washington University in St. Louis Died November 12, 1946, St. Louis, Missouri, United States Education Washington University in St. Louis | ||
Resting place Bellefontaine Cemetery | ||
A Look Back at Albert Lambert and St. Louis Aviation - FLY314
Albert Bond Lambert (December 6, 1875 – November 12, 1946) was an American golfer who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics and in the 1904 Summer Olympics. He was also a prominent St. Louis aviator and benefactor of aviation.
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Early life
He was son of Jordan W. Lambert, founder of Lambert Pharmaceutical Company which made 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.
Golf
At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Lambert finished eighth in the individual event.
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. 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
Lambert was a Police Commissioner of St. Louis and a local industrialist. 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 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. For the next seven years, Lambert, at his own expense, developed the field with runways and hangars. In 1927 Lambert was one of the St. Louis committee of backers to 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. Lambert-St. Louis International Airport thus became one of the first municipal airports in the United States.