Wendell Edward NIles Jr.

Wendell Edward Niles, Jr., 88, passed away after a long battle with Parkinson's on January 2 leaving behind an amazing life well lived and well loved. He comes from an extraordinary family and lived an extraordinary life. Born in Seattle, Washington, to Wendell and Ann Niles on December 8, 1930, he and his family, including his younger brother, Denny, eventually moved to Southern California in the late 1930s, where his bandleader father (Dorsey Bothers, Bix Beiderbecke) was offered a coveted radio job on the Burns and Allen Show. His father, Wendell Sr. went onto to become one of the biggest announcers for the top radio shows of the 30s and 40s including for Bob Hope, Milton Berle, George Burns and Gracie Allen, who all became lifelong friends. You never knew who might be in the living room of their Toluca Lake, California, home having a cocktail; from Ronald Reagan to Dean Martin to Bing Crosby.
After graduating from North Hollywood High School, Wendell attended the University of Washington, where he played football alongside legends such as Hugh McElhenny and Don Heinrich on the storied Husky teams of the early 1950s. He is in the Husky Hall of Fame and was one of the leading placekickers in college football during his sophomore year. He enjoyed life with his fraternity brothers at the Phi Delta Theta house, many of whom he still counted as his closest friends till the end.
True to form, Wendell enjoyed a unique career trajectory. After being drafted by the Los Angeles Rams in the mid-1950s, he left pro sports behind and worked as an intern at the William Morris Agency. He then moved to New York to work on Jack Parr's "The Tonight Show." He switched to advertising working for the Colgate-Palmolive Company, which would later serve him being at the forefront of product placement. Along with his father and brother, he produced the precursor to American Idol-type shows, "The All-American College Show," a TV talent show, where none other than the Carpenters were discovered. He virtually created the concept of pro-celebrity sports, producing golf and tennis events all over the world throughout the 1970s and 80s, with his premier event each summer in Monte Carlo, which he began with HSH Princess Grace of Monaco. In the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, he served as the Director of Special Events for Tennis, and was instrumental in bringing tennis back to the Olympic Games. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, he focused solely on his product placement repping huge international corporations. He also relished being a captain in the Naval Reserve for more than 20 years. Two of his proudest community achievements were his many terms served as Honorary Mayor of Toluca Lake, California, and his co-founding of the Toluca Lake Tennis Club with Paul Ramsey.
While in New York in the early 1960s, he met aspiring actress and magazine editor, Nelle Longshore, whom he married on June 9, 1962 enjoying a storybook romance for over 56 years of marriage. They had five children whom they raised in Los Angeles. He gave his children an amazing life full of travel, heads of state, celebrities, but most importantly unconditional love. He traveled the world on business, but he made sure his family knew they were his number one priority. He did whimsical, magical things, such as bringing Farrah Fawcett by their house in the height of her "Charlie's Angels" fame (his young daughters never got over that!).
He was an amazing athlete; not only on the football field, but also just about in any sport he played. He was a world-class tennis player, and together with Howard Head, he helped develop the Prince tennis racquet, which revolutionized tennis in the late 1970s. Wendell was a fixture at the spirited Saturday tennis matches during the 70s and 80s in Beverly Hills with producers Bob Evans, Dick Zanuck, and all the luminaries of the "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls" era.
He made friends wherever he went and brought a joie de vivre to everything he did. Whether it was training to win the egg toss at the Father Daughter picnic at his daughters' high school, Marlborough School, or putting on a huge international event in Monte Carlo, he did things his own way, in his own time but with unbelievable flare. In the days following his passing, the words that have been used the most are "generous," "big-hearted," "confident," "larger than life," "life of the party," "loyal," loving." The list goes on. As the father of five, the neighborhood kids in Toluca Lake, California would often show up at the house and instead of asking after the kids, would ask if "Mr. Niles could come out and play." He was just that fun. He counted among his friends, princes, captains of industry and A-list celebrities, but it was his love for his family that was most impressive.
Wendell is survived by his beloved wife of 56 years, Nelle; his five children, Wendell "Del" Edward Niles, III, Leslie Niles Polhemus (Jib), Leigh Niles Reason (Matt), Molly Niles Renshaw (Alan) and Amanda Niles Conti (Rod), his cherished grandchildren Jack, Teddy, Nelle, William, Georgi, Shepard and Pippa, many nieces and nephews and countless friends. He was predeceased by his younger brother, Richard Denison "Denny" Niles in 2011. He will be missed forever.
A celebration of life was held on Saturday, February 9 at Santuari Restaurant at the Toluca Lake Tennis & Fitness Club.