Julius Heldman (May 9, 1919 – September 22, 2006) was born in Los Angeles, California. He attended

Hollywood High School Hollywood High School is a four-year public secondary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District, located at the intersection of North Highland Avenue and West Sunset Boulevard in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California. His ...

in Los Angeles and entered

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

at age 15. He was the Tennis Team Captain at UCLA and became the National Junior Tennis Champion in 1936. He was taught tennis by legendary tennis teacher,

Dick Skeen Richard Edgar Skeen (March 15, 1906 – June 24, 1990) was an American professional tennis player and teacher. He was runner-up to Fred Perry in the Men's Singles in the 1941 U.S. Pro Tennis Championships, reaching as high as World No. 2 pro ...

. He received a Doctorate from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in physical chemistry and became a

Shell Oil Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company, headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Y ...

executive and worked on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development program undertaken during World War II to produce the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States in collaboration with the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the ...

. He died in Albuquerque, New Mexico at age 87.

Life and career

Heldman was a

student when he captured the United States Junior (18 & under) Outdoor Singles and Doubles Championships. He was a child prodigy and entered

at the age of 15 (1934), won the National Juniors in 1936, and was the Pacific Coast's Intercollegiate Singles Champion in 1937. He was the captain of the UCLA tennis team until 1939 when he graduated and left to obtain his Doctorate in

physical chemistry Physical chemistry is the study of macroscopic and microscopic phenomena in chemical systems in terms of the principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as motion, energy, force, time, thermodynamics, quantum chemistry, statistical mech ...

from

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

. He was a National Research Fellow from 1942 to 1943. During World War II, he was asked to be part of the Manhattan Project and he relocated the family to

Oak Ridge, Tennessee Oak Ridge is a city in Anderson County, Tennessee, Anderson and Roane County, Tennessee, Roane counties in the East Tennessee, eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, Knoxville. Oak Ridge's po ...

. After the war, Heldman joined

in Houston and New York where he worked as an Executive from 1945 to 1980 until retiring to

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

. While working for Shell Oil, he continued to play tennis. Heldman was ranked #1 in Men's Singles by the Southern California Tennis Association in 1947. He won the U.S. Senior (45-over) Indoor titles in both 1964 and 1965, and was also the 1964 Outdoor

Clay Court A clay court is one of the types of tennis court on which the sport of tennis is played. Clay courts are built on a foundation of crushed stone, brick, shale, and other construction aggregate, aggregate, with a thin layer of fine clay particles ...

Champion. During the late 1960s, he got to the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Senior Doubles three different times. In his tennis career he had wins over

Jack Kramer John Albert Kramer (August 1, 1921 – September 12, 2009) was an American tennis player of the 1940s and 1950s, and a pioneer promoter who helped drive the sport towards professionalism at the elite level. Kramer also ushered in the serve-an ...

Ted Schroeder Frederick Rudolph "Ted" Schroeder (July 20, 1921 – May 26, 2006) was an American tennis player who won the two most prestigious amateur tennis titles, Wimbledon and the U.S. National. He was the No. 1-ranked American amateur player in 1942 ...

, and Herbie Flam. In 1997 he was inducted into the

Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame The Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in Beverly Hills, California, is a hall of fame dedicated to honoring American Jews, American Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distingui ...

Family

Heldman was married to

Gladys Heldman Gladys Medalie Heldman (May 13, 1922 – June 22, 2003) was an American tennis player, promoter, manager and magazine publisher. She was the founder of '' World Tennis'' magazine. As a manager, she supported and represented Billie Jean King and ...

, the founder of ''World Tennis'' magazine, and was the father of Carrie and

Julie Heldman Julie Heldman (born December 8, 1945) is an American tennis player who won 22 singles titles. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles Champion at age 12, U.S. Champion in Girls' 15 Singl ...

Death

He died in 2006 at the age of 87 at University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. He had esophageal and stomach cancer.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heldman, Julius American male tennis players American business executives Jewish American tennis players UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Tennis players from California 1919 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews Jews from California Jews from New Mexico Stanford University alumni Deaths from cancer in New Mexico 20th-century American sportsmen