Wendell P. McKown

Wendell P. McKown, Lambda, 1898, Phi Alpha 1928-1929

Wendell P. McKown, Lambda, 1898, was a well-respected attorney in New York with the firms of McKown and Conlan and Austin and McKown. He was also an officer in a corporation which developed large tracts of property in Colonia and Woodbridge, New Jersey.

As an undergraduate at Bowdoin, Brother McKown was an outstanding student being
freshman class poet, receiving the Smyth Mathematics Scholarship and being elected a
member of Phi Beta Kappa. After graduation, he returned to his hometown of Boothbay
Harbor, Maine and served for two years as principal of the high school before entering
Harvard Law School and graduating in 1903. He was admitted into the New York bar in
1904.

According to The Story of Zeta Psi (1932), Brother McKown “associated with a fellow
Zete in the practice of law, he rendered great service as the legal advisor to the
fraternity….and when the Lambda need a new chapter house, it was Brother McKown
who, as chairman of the finance committee, was most active in raising funds. Finally, as
Phi Alpha, he practically took a year’s leave of absence from his practice and visited
every chapter from North Carolina to Maine and from New York to Vancouver.”

Brother McKown was also a member of the Zeta Psi Club of New York for many years
and served on the committee in 1922-1926 that financed, designed and equipped the
club’s new quarters at 31 East 39 th Street.  Brother McKown, the poet, also wrote “My Beloved Zeta Psi” which is in many Zeta Psi Song Books.

His son, Wendell Jr., followed him to Bowdoin College and into Zeta Psi.