From a 1924 diary entry by his grandmother, Eliza (Wakeland) Thompson, recorded in Santa Rosa:

Oct 14 Electas Baby Wm F Wendt was

born today at Mss Sebaafsmas

  Maturnity home.

Raised and lived in Napa. Served in the U.S. Army Air Force 1943-1946. A radio operator in the service, he was trained to located aircraft by triangulation (with the invention of Radar being kept secret from his branch), and was stationed in Wisconsin, Washington, and finally in Fresno where he was stuck picking cotton, cleaning latrines, and working for a fruit dehydrating plant in Visalia. After getting out of the Army, he went to work for Basalt Rock Company as a welder and was a member of the Boilermaker - Blacksmith Union. He continued to work at the same plant site when the Kaiser Steel Corporation took over their pipe foundry operations in the mid-fifties, and worked for 47 years total until the plant was closed down 6 months before he was to retire. In his leisure time, he enjoyed traveling, eating, and outdoor activities. He attained a General Class radio license back when it meant something, and was active in radio amateur groups for many years. He was good at almost anything he tried, and was an avid fisherman, scuba diver, photographer, ukulele player, skier, jogger, and walker. He kept a remarkable and bountiful back yard garden, which he worked on meticulously until the final years of his illness.