Harold F. Wendel was a businessman and civic leader of Portland, Oregon. From 1927 until his death in 1967 he served as president of the local department store Lipman Wolfe and Co., one of the city's largest. He also gained distiction as member of the State Sanitary Authority, which he joined in 1939. The Authority was charged with monitoring the pollution throughout the state, and Wendel was one of the earliest Oregon public figures to champion environmental protection. Wendel was also active in numerous civic organizations and was chosen as Portland's "First Citizen" by the Board of Realtors in 1956. He accompanied a U.S. trade mission to Japan, headed by Under-Secretary of Commerce Walter Williams, in 1958.
From the guide to the Harold F. Wendel papers, 1927-1967, (Oregon Historical Society)
