Rash's Surname Index
Notes for William Kenneth Jr. MENDENHALL
William Kenneth Mendenhall Jr. of Juno Beach, Florida William Kenneth Mendenhall Jr. age 83, of The Waterford, Juno Beach, Florida passed away peacefully on the 10th of March, 2015 after a hard fought battle with pancreatic cancer. Ken Mendenhall was born on the 27th January 1932 in Englewood, New Jersey, son of the late William K. Mendenall, Sr. and the late Jeanne Pierce Mendenhall. Ken graduated from Leonia High School and studied at Hamden Sydney before joining the Navy in 1952 during the Korean War. He resumed studies at the University of Virginia, Theta Chi fraternity, graduating in 1954. In 1955 he married Barbara and moved to Palo Alto, California to study law at Stanford University, graduating in 1957. Ken then had a successful career in the oil department of Citibank, moving with his family to London in 1960. In 1973, he set up the London merchant banking subsidiary of Banco Urquijo (later Banco Urquijo Hispano Americano Ltd.) which he ran for almost fifteen years. In 1964 he bought a family home in East Grafton, Wiltshire which, by a twist of fate, was only a few miles from the village of Mildenhall in the Kennet valley, near the Marridge Hill home of his ancestor Benjamin Mendenhall, a Quaker who bought land from William Penn and emigrated to Kennett Square, Pennsylvania in 1685. In 1967 the purchase of an Irish draft mare called Cinderella sparked a lifelong passion for foxhunting and horse breeding. In 1987 Ken retired and moved with Barbara to a small farm in Exford, on Exmoor in Somerset, UK where he rode to hounds six days a week (hunts do not meet on the Sabbath in England!) with the staghounds and four packs of foxhounds in that wonderful moorland country. In 1992 Ken and Barbara began spending summer in Pennsylvania and spring in Florida, returning to Exmoor for the autumn. Being in Florida for spring training enabled Ken to renew his passion for baseball. Summers in Pennsylvania allowed him to pursue research into his family history in which he took a great interest. Ken shared his enthusiasm for entertaining, foxhunting, baseball, family history and Spanish culture with great zest. He will be missed by many friends on both sides of the Atlantic. He is survived by his wife of fifty-nine eventful and happy years, Barbara Suchy Mendenhall, his sister Jeannine McLaughlin of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania (George), son William Kenneth III of London, UK (Mary Elisabeth), daughter Jennifer of Hyattsville, Maryland (Michael) and grandchildren Pierce, Luke, and Tobias and Henry and Vivian.
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