Henry Wells (author)

Wells was born in Macomb, Illinois, the son of Maurice Henry Wells and Dorcas H. Hart.[1][2][3] His original immigrant ancestor was Thomas Welles (1590–1659), who arrived in Connecticut in 1637 and was the only man in Connecticut's history to hold all four top offices: governor, deputy governor, treasurer, and secretary.[4] He is also a descendant of Hopkins L. Turney (October 3, 1797 – August 1, 1857) a Democratic U.S. Representative and United States Senator from Tennessee.

He received a bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, Phi Beta Kappa,[2] and a master's degree at Louisiana State University.[1]

Wells also enrolled at Yale University but withdrew in order to join the United States Navy in 1942 during World War II.[1] He served as an intelligence officer in the South Pacific with the Seventh Fleet from 1942 to 1946.[1] Following World War II, Wells returned to Yale University where he earned his doctorate in 1947.[1][2] He taught at Yale as a professor until 1953.[1] (An avid golfer, Wells helped pay for his Yale education by working as a golf pro in Litchfield, Connecticut).[1]

Wells married Patricia Brown in 1950. The couple later moved to Mount Airy in Philadelphia and had six children.[1][2]

Wells taught at the University of Puerto Rico from 1953 to 1956.[1] He joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1956 where he taught until his retirement in 1986.[1] He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship and took a leave of absence from Penn in order to teach in Costa Rica.[1] Wells drove a Dodge van wife his and six children down the Pan-American Highway in order to reach San José, Costa Rica.[1] The family arrived in San Jose on the same day that the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon.[1]

He was the author of several books on Latin American including The Modernization of Puerto Rico: A Political Study of Changing Values and Institutions, which was published in 1969.[1]

Wells was an outspoken critic of the United States' support of the El Salvadoran military during the Salvadoran Civil War of the 1980s.[1] Wells was quoted in a 1981 interview, "We are on the wrong side in El Salvador...We are trying to show the Soviets how tough we are . . . at the expense of the desperately poor in El Salvador."[1]

Wells was also an active community activist in Philadelphia. He served as a consultant to then Philadelphia Mayor Richardson Dilworth on community relations.[1] He also held a post of judge of elections in West Mount Airy from 1962 to 1964.[1][2] Wells supported housing and neighborhood integration as president of the West Mount Airy Neighbors in the early 1960s.[1] He also once organized a weekend for 200 families of United Nations delegates and employees.[1] The families stayed for the weekend at the homes of local West Mount Airy residents.[1]

Henry Wells died of complications from Alzheimer's disease at his home in Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on October 1, 2007.[1][2] He was 92 years old.[1][2] He was survived by his wife, four daughters, two sons, and ten grandchildren.[1][2]