Veteran of World War II

Radar Mechanic

United States Army Air Force

20th Air Force in Guam

Mining Engineer, Robert Eli Kendall.

Robert Eli Kendall was the first mining engineer to be president of U.S. Borax, one of California's most historic mining companies, which has for its symbol the twenty-mule teams crossing Death Valley. He impressed industry leaders with his "technical competence, his obvious intelligence, and his open, easy personality... Truly a miner's mining engineer."

PARENTS

Son of rag-to-riches-miner Zebedee Z "Zeb" Kendall (born 1875 on a St. John, Kansas farm) and wife, Arabella Frances "Belle" Pepper (born 1885/6 in a cabin in Montrose Co., Colorado)

EDUCATION

-Virginia City High School (2 yrs)

-Montezuma Mountain Ranch School, a highly acclaimed private boys school near Los Gatos, California (2yrs)

-Dartmouth College, majoring in physics

-Degree in mining engineering from

Mackay School of Mines at the University of Nevada in Reno, 1948.

BIRTH

California Birth Index

Name: Robert E Kendall

Birth: 20 Jan 1923 at San Francisco Co.

Mother's Maiden Name: Pepper

Nevada Death Index

Name: Robert E Kendall

Birth: 20 Jan 1923 at California

Death Date: 8 Aug 2007

Death Place: Sparks, Washoe, Nevada

SSDI: Last Residence: Sparks, Washoe, NV

Census

1920 Census, San Francisco, San Francisco, California; 25 17th Ave (Robert not yet born)

-Zeb Kendall, head, 44, b. KS, father WV, mother U.S., Operator Mining

-Belle Kendall, wife, 30, b. CO, father KY, mother NY

-Abe Kendall, son, 10, b. NV

-Jean Kendall, dau, 6, b. NV

-Emma Holt, mother-in-law, 57, b. NY, father Burgen Germany, mother Switzerland German

-Harry Nakatsuka, cook, 43, single, b. Japan, servant

IN THE NEWS

People

Los Angeles Times

January 7, 1987

Robert E. Kendall has been elected president of United States Borax & Chemical Corp., Los Angeles, effective immediately. Kendall, a mining engineer with 32 years of service with U.S. Borax, formerly was executive vice president. He was elected vice president in 1969, a director in 1970 and executive vice president in 1973.

SPECIAL INTEREST

Historic Virginia City 4th Ward School

Bob was dedicated to its restoration and preservation.

http://nevadafund.org/historic-4th-ward-school-endowment/

FATHER

Zeb Kendall

"A big hearted boyish fellow, with nothing but kind words and kind thoughts for all."(Who's Who in Nevada," published 1907)

President of the famed Consolidated Virginia Mining Co., from 1920 until his death in 1954, on the Comstock Lode at Virginia City, Nevada

Two-term Nevada State Senator Zebedee "Zeb" Kendall, a well-respected mining pioneer, civic leader and Legislator, was inducted into the Senate Hall of Fame of the Legislature of the State of Nevada.

Zeb Kendall, who was a founding father of "Goldfield" and a renowned promoter around Tonopah, striking it rich there in 1900. His brother was the first murder victim in Goldfield (over a mining claim). Zeb also promoted Rawhide (Nevada). A notorious gambler, he lost a number of small fortunes. In the 1930's, he bought up much of the Comstock tailings and, with a superior milling process, proceeded to make yet another fortune.

NEVADA SENATE HALL OF FAME

Zebedee "Zeb" Kendall was inducted into the Nevada Senate Hall of Fame as shown below:

SENATE RESOLUTION—Inducting Zebedee "Zeb" Kendall into the Senate Hall of Fame.

Whereas, The Senate of the Legislature of the State of Nevada has established a Senate Hall of Fame whose members are selected by leadership from former state Senators who have served with distinction with exemplary contributions to the State of Nevada; and

Whereas, Senator Zeb Kendall served as a representative of Nye County in the Senate of the Nevada Legislature for 8 years from 1909 through 1916 and during his tenure served as Chairman of the committees on Mines and Mining, Agriculture, Counties and County Boundaries, Railroads, Internal Improvements and Manufactures, and Rules and Joint Rules; and

Whereas, Senator Kendall introduced and helped secure the passage of important legislation pertaining to mining claims and regulations, telephone-telegraph franchises and requiring public water companies to supply water for fire protection; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of Nevada, That Senator Zebedee "Zeb" Kendall, a well-respected mining pioneer, civic leader and Legislator, is hereby inducted into the Senate Hall of Fame of the Legislature of the State of Nevada.

FAMILY STORIES

"The Tithe"

As a youth, Bob's dad, Zeb, moved with his family from Kansas to Utah. Zeb was a son of strict Mormon Eli Kendall. At harvest time Zeb would drive the family's every tenth load of hay and grain to the church warehouse in Provo as a tithe. On one trip in about 1895, Zeb and an older brother, feeling sorry for themselves and their ragged clothes, sold the hay to buy clothes, but bought whiskey instead...and drank it! Afraid to go home, they ran away. Zeb began working "day's pay" mining jobs in Utah and Nevada. In 1900, he struck it rich mining silver in the Mizpah Vein at Tonopah, Nevada. Transformed suddenly from a ragged miner into an entrepreneur, he spent the rest of his life living in both Virginia City, Nevada and in San Francisco as a well-respected mining pioneer, promoter, speculator, Nevada state senator, and civic leader. A gambler, as well, he made and lost two or three fortunes, considering money as something to play with, not to invest, especially in land, which reminded him too much of farming.

"Money Out the Window"

Bob's mother Belle often tried to get Zeb to stop gambling, and once got him to swear off it for good at the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco. But shortly after he ran into his old friend Wyatt Earp, and they went off to the racetrack and gambled. Robert shared, "When Dad got back to the hotel, Mom was waiting for him in the room. He threw a satchel full of winnings on the bed and said, "This is all for you." Without a word, my mother picked up the satchel, walked to the window, and emptied it out into the street. It turned out that the satchel had about $80,000 in winnings in it. I asked Mom if she knew that. "No," she said, "but I do know that it almost started a riot in the street."

(Stories retold from Bob's oral history at University of California Berkeley)