Frank Neuhauser

Frank Louis Neuhauser (September 29, 1913 – March 11, 2011) was an American patent lawyer and spelling bee champion, who won the first National Spelling Bee (now known as the Scripps National Spelling Bee^[1]) in 1925 by successfully spelling the word "gladiolus".^[1][2] He was 11 years old when he won the spelling bee.

Early life[]

Neuhauser was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on September 29, 1913, to German American parents.^[1] His father, a stonemason, worked on spelling with his son on weekends if the weather was bad.^[1]

National Spelling Bee[]

Neuhauser defeated nine finalists on stage, who had been whittled down from approximately two million schoolchildren,^[2] to win the first ever National Spelling Bee, held in Washington D.C. in June 1925.^[1] He had prepared for the bee by copying the dictionary into a blank notebook.^[2] Neuhauser, who was eleven years old at the time of the contest, met U.S. President Calvin Coolidge and was awarded five hundred dollars in gold pieces for his victory.^[2] His hometown of Louisville, Kentucky gave Neuhauser a parade in his honor and presented him with bouquets of gladioli.^[1][2] His classmates and school also gave him a bicycle.^[1] During his later life, Neuhauser often appeared as a guest of honor at more recent spelling bees.^[1] He also appeared in the 2002 documentary film Spellbound.^[2]

Education[]

Neuhauser went on to obtain a bachelor's degree in engineering from the University of Louisville in 1934.^[2] He began working as a small appliance engineer for General Electric (GE), which offered to send him to law school in order to gain additional patent lawyers.^[2] Neuhauser received his law degree from George Washington University in 1940.^[2] Neuhauser enlisted in the United States Navy during World War II.^[2]

Later life and death[]

Following the end of World War II, Neuhauser returned to General Electric as a patent attorney. He worked for GE in Connecticut and New York City, before moving permanently to Maryland in the mid-1950s.^[2] He remained on the staff of General Electric, and, among other things, was manager of GE's Washington Patent Operation, where he formally trained many patent attorneys, in a training program that had 16 prospective patent attorneys at a time. In 1978 he left GE to join Bernard Rothwell & Brown, a law firm based in Washington D.C.^[1][2]

Neuhauser formerly chaired the patent law divisions of both the and the American Bar Association.^[2] He was the former president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and the former chairman of the National Council of Patent Law Associations.^[2]

Neuhauser died from myelodysplastic syndrome at his home in Silver Spring, Maryland, on March 11, 2011, at the age of 97.^[2] He was survived by his wife of 66 years, Mary Virginia Clark Neuhauser; four children – Linda, Frank, Charles and Alan; and five grandchildren.^[1]

References[]