Kermit Roosevelt (October 10, 1889–June 4, 1943) was a son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt who became a businessman, soldier, and writer.

He was born at the Roosevelt residence of Sagamore Hill in Oyster Bay, New York. After attending the Groton boarding school , he joined his father on a 1909 safari to Africa, then went to Harvard University, graduating in just two-and-a-half years.

He married Belle Wyatt Willard in 1912, then in 1914 joined his father for another trip, this time to explore the River of Doubt (later dubbed Rio Roosevelt ) in the Amazon Basin.

Kermit joined the British Army to fight in the Palestine theater of World War I. He was attached to the 14th Light Armoured Motor Battery of the Machine Gun Corps, but the British High Command decided they could not risk his life and so they made him an officer in charge of transport (ancient Ford Model T cars). From then on, however, Captain Roosevelt made it his main aim in life to get his Ford in front of the Armor. He was awarded a well-earned Military Cross. Kermit transferred to the AEF when the United States joined the war.

Going into business, he founded the Roosevelt Steamship Company and the United States Lines. In 1929 he went to China with his brother Theodore Roosevelt II in search of a Giant Panda to stuff and put on display in a museum.

Kermit joined the British again in World War II, then received a commission in the United States Army and was assigned to Fort Richardson in Alaska, but without any specific duties. It was there he committed suicide with a .45 to his chin. (The cause of death was reported as heart failure for many years.)

He had four children with Belle: Kermit Roosevelt Jr., Joseph Willard Roosevelt , Belle Wyatt Roosevelt , and Dirck Roosevelt .

Works

• War in the Garden of Eden
• The Happy Hunting Grounds
• Trailing the Great Panda (with Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.)
• Quentin Roosevelt: A Sketch with Letters

External link

• War in the Garden of Eden from Project Gutenberg

[1]Almanac of Theodore Roosevelt: Kermit Roosevelt