Julius Heldman (May 9, 1919 – September 22, 2006) 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. Histo ...

in Los Angeles and entered

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

at age 15, became the National Junior Tennis Champion in 1936 and was the Tennis Team Captain at UCLA. He received a Doctorate from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

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 Yor ...

executive and worked on the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

. He was born in Los Angeles, California and died in Albuquerque, New Mexico at age 87. 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 ...

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 mecha ...

from

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

. 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 and Roane counties in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Tennessee, about west of downtown Knoxville. Oak Ridge's population was 31,402 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Knoxville Metropolitan Area. Oak ...

. 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 ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

. 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, originally known as "lawn tennis", is played. Clay courts are made of crushed stone, brick, shale, or other unbound mineral aggregate depending on the tournament. ...

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. He won three Grand Slam tournaments (the U.S. Championships in 1946 and 1947, Wimbledon in 1947). He led the U.S. Davis Cup tennis ...

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 Herbert Flam (November 7, 1928 – November 25, 1980) was an American tennis player who in 1957 was ranked by Lance Tingay as the World No. 4 amateur (and World No. 5 by Adrian Quist).

. 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 Jewish athletes, other sports personalities, and teams from Southern California who have distinguished themselves ...

Family

Heldman was married to

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

, 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 1969 and 1974, she was ranked as the world No. 5. In 1968 and 1969, she was ranked No. 2 in the U.S. She was Canadian National 18 and Under Singles ...

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 sportspeople Jewish tennis players UCLA Bruins men's tennis players Tennis people from California 1919 births 2006 deaths 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews