Elkins Wetherill, lawyer and county official

Posted 9/20/11

Elkins Wetherill, 91, of Plymouth Meeting, a lawyer who held several Montgomery County offices, died Aug. 11, at his summer home in Waldoboro, Maine.

Mr. Wetherill had served as chairman of the …

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Elkins Wetherill, lawyer and county official

Posted

Elkins Wetherill, 91, of Plymouth Meeting, a lawyer who held several Montgomery County offices, died Aug. 11, at his summer home in Waldoboro, Maine.

Mr. Wetherill had served as chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners from 1963 to 1965, and was county treasurer from 1956 to 1959.

He was chairman of the Montgomery County Open Space Board from 1993 until earlier this year and was the author of, “A Field Guide to Some of the Common Grasses of Southeastern Pennsylvania,” published by the Brandywine Conservancy.

Formerly a resident of Chestnut Hill, Mr. Wetherill sold to Plymouth Township part of his Plymouth Meeting farm, which became the Harriet Wetherill Park to honor his late wife.

He was a founding member of the Norristown law firm of Henderson, Wetherill, O’Hey & Horsey, where he was a partner until 1998.

Mr. Wetherill also had been chairman of the Pennsylvania Securities Commission from 1963 to 1965 and a solicitor for Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor from 1951 to 1955.

He also had been president of the former Philadelphia Stock Exchange and had served three terms as chairman of the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission.

He was a former board chairman and director of both WHYY Inc. and the Philadelphia Drama Guild.

He was a former trustee of Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va., and was a board member at, among others, St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and the Committee of Seventy.

Born in Philadelphia, Mr. Wetherill graduated from St. George’s School near Newport, R.I., and interrupted his studies at the University of Pennsylvania to serve with the First City Troop during World War II. He returned to Penn and graduated from its law school in 1948.

He is survived by his wife, Ethel; sons Elkins Jr. and Stephen; a daughter, Alexandra Gerry; stepsons Edwin, Horace and Alexander Nalle; stepdaughters Ellen Hass and Lucy Weed; seven grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; and 14 step-grandchildren. His first wife died in 1994.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Friday, Sept. 16, at St. Thomas Church, Whitemarsh, Bethlehem Pike and Camp Hill Road, Ft. Washington.

Memorial donations may be made to the Montgomery County Lands Trust, P.O. Box 300, Lederach, PA  19450. – WF

 

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