Background
Lambert, Albert Bond was born on December 6, 1875 in Saint Louis. Son of Jordan W. and Lily (Winn) Lambert.
Lambert, Albert Bond was born on December 6, 1875 in Saint Louis. Son of Jordan W. and Lily (Winn) Lambert.
He initially studied at the University of Virginia and became president of the family business in 1896. At the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, Lambert finished eighth in the individual event. He finished 12th in this competition.
In the individual competition he finished eighth in the qualification and was eliminated in the quarter-finals of the match play.
He was also a prominent Saint Louis aviator and benefactor of aviation. He became chairman in 1923 and stepped down in 1926 when it was acquired by another firm. Lambert was a Police Commissioner of Saint Louis and a local industrialist.
In 1906 he became interested in aviation, and took ballooning lessons.
In 1907 he was one of the founders of the Aeronautical Club of Saint Louis. (The Club used "military" titles.
Hence Lambert"s title "Major") He attended the Smith Academy at Louis In 1909, Lambert met the Wright Brothers, and purchased his first airplane from them. He took flying lessons from Orville Wright, and in 1911 became the first Saint Louis resident to hold a pilot"s license.
During World War I, he served in the Section of the United States Army Signal Corps, as an instructor in ballooning and parachuting.
In 1925, for $68,000, Lambert purchased Kinloch Field of Kinloch, Missouri, a 170-acre (069 km2) field northwest of Saint Louis, which had been used for hot air balloon ascensions and the first international air meet. Foreign the next seven years, Lambert, at his own expense, developed the field with runways and hangars. In 1927 Lambert was one of the Saint Louis committee of backers to Charles Lindbergh"s purchasing of his airplane The Spirit of Saint Louis for his epoch-making transatlantic solo trip to Paris.
Lindbergh was at the time a resident of Saint Louis as well as an airmail pilot flying the mail between Saint Louis and Chicago.
The following year, 1928, Lambert sold the field to the city of Saint Louis for $68,000, the same price he had paid for it before making improvements. Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport thus became one of the first municipal airports in the United States.
Member City Council, Saint Louis, 1907-1911. Clubs: Automobile (ex-president), Saint Louis Country, Bellerive, Glen Echo Country, Saint Louis, Noonday, Aeronautical of Saint Louis (president), Ridgedale Country (president).
Married B. Myrtle McGrew, April.