DR. WENDEL

The man they call Dr. Wendel

RIGHT: Dr. Wendel works his air/smoke machine for the students. He is actually Dr. Sam Wendel, to be totally correct. He has more than 50 years of experience in science. Wendel is not going to tell you, so we will. Sam is a scientist.

He was a scientist back in the 1960’s and worked in the Eli Lilly Company research department of the Elizabeth

Arden division and then in the Process

Research and Development division.

Dr. Sam also blew up things in his

Mad Science days - lots of flames and explosions. He will tell you about that, if you ask.

“I guess I got started early,” Wendel says. “I did my first public science demonstration at age 15. Then I did the odd demonstration when the companies where I worked had an open house.” In 1992, Lilly had an open house, and he was part of a group asked to put on a show.

“We did a thing called ‘Chemistry is a

Blast’. That led to requests to do the show at schools.” Eventually, the “Blast” performances led to creating a crew that performed the show to an annual audience of 15,000. After retiring from Lilly, Wendel purchased a franchise business called Mad Science. “I operated Mad Science for 10 years. We did after-school programs, workshops, birthday parties, summer camps, hands-on science booths, and large group science shows.” He closed the business in 2014.

I genuinely like the students. Their level of academic ability and raw talent is a source of constant surprise and often amazement.

SAM WENDEL

Wendel grew up on a small tenant farm in east central Illinois. He was a teen “during the Sputnik years,” he says. “I got pulled up into all the science furor of the time.” A graduate of the University of Illinois, he earned his B.S. in chemistry in 1966 and a Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the University of Montana in 1973. Besides working at Lilly, Wendel worked in various research and tech service jobs for the Dow Corning Corporation in Midland, Michigan for 13 years before joining Lilly. After he retired and closed his Mad Science business, Wendel was looking for his next chapter. “My daughter, who has always worked for not-for-profits, saw the Sycamore job posting on a not-for-profit website. I interviewed rather late in the summer. Since they were probably desperate, they hired me.” It is Sycamore’s good fortune that we waited for Dr. Sam. His quiet, grandfatherly presence in David Schuth’s classroom belies his mischievous scientist side. He revels in jumping back into his mad scientist persona, whether it is for a classroom experiment or for an open house, displaying his tricks and skills for wide-eyed students. “I genuinely like the students. Their level of academic ability and raw talent is a source of constant surprise and often amazement,” he says. “Sycamore has also given me the opportunity to contribute outside the classroom in summer camps and booths for Sycamore open houses.” He has done demo programs in the Lower School and says one of the classes called him “The Last Firebender” because of one of the experiments he demonstrated. He also oversees the concession stand for athletic events. Sam, who has been married for 54 years, has three grown children. “My oldest boy works as a manager for a group of Ace Hardware stores in South Carolina. My daughter is a director at Community Health, and my youngest son is an orthopedic OR nurse at the Roudebush Veterans Hospital.” Is Wendel having fun in his most recent career move? “I take some enjoyment, or at least satisfaction, from everything I do,” he says. •

WEDDING DAY Sam Wendel and his wife Jane were married in 1967.

Jay Wetzel ‘96