Wendell B. Sell; Industrialist, Trustee of Military Academies

Wendell B. Sell, a Southern California industrialist and military expert who was the only man to serve jointly as trustee of both the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the Air Force Academy, has died. He was 74.

Sell died Jan. 17 at his home in Tarzana of brain cancer, his friend John P. Shelton said last week.

Reared in Arcadia, Sell graduated from West Point in 1940 and earned a Ph.D. in engineering from Johns Hopkins University. He was commander of an antiaircraft unit at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked on Dec. 7, 1941.

Sell remained active with the military even in civilian life, serving as a major general in the Air Force Reserve, trustee of the two academies and chairman of the Falcon Foundation, the fund-raising group for the Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, Colo.

After a stint as an aeronautical engineer for Boeing, Sell served as general manager of Marquardt Corp. in Claremont, president of Packard-Bell in West Los Angeles, chairman and president of Hoffman Electronics in El Monte, chairman of Helionetics in Santa Ana and, most recently, chairman and president of Compact Video in Burbank.

Sell’s avocation was growing orchids. He chaired the 1966 International Orchid Conference held in Long Beach.

He is survived by his wife, Charlotte, three daughters, three sons and seven grandchildren.

The family has asked that any memorial donations be made to the Falcon Foundation or the West Point Fund.