Lulu Wendel was born Luise Finck in Frankfurt, Germany in 1906. She immigrated to the United States in 1929 and worked as a lab technician for a chemical manufacturing company in New York. She married Hans Wendel, a chemical engineer and another German immigrant, and they settled in California.
In 1940, following the birth of her first child, Mrs. Wendel experienced extreme manic depression with episodes of violence, and she was committed to a California state mental hospital. She recovered after an institutionalization of over three years. In 1944 she moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to rejoin her husband and young daughter Lulu Jane.
Mrs. Wendel's personal experiences as a patient in a mental institution inspired her lifelong efforts to aid the mentally ill. Through writing and participation in various mental health organizations, she worked to improve conditions in state hospitals and to foster an understanding of mental illness from the patient's point of view.
Her first contribution was an account of her illness and recovery entitled “If I Am Ever Mentally Ill Again, I Hope the Hospitals Will Be Different.” Published in 1945, the article was reprinted many times and incorporated into a number of hospital training programs.
In 1945 she joined the Milwaukee Women's Court and Civic Conference (WCCC) and became chair of its committee on mental hygiene. She instigated tours of mental facilities in Wisconsin and wrote reports and gave presentations on conditions. In particular, her activities were aimed at abolishing restraint and patient isolation, providing recreation, and improving treatment programs. Under her leadership, the WCCC committee also sponsored educational programs about mental illness and lobbied for increased funding for mental institutions. Mrs. Wendel was also responsible for the organization of the WCCC Friendship Service Club to recruit and organize hospital volunteers, channel donations, and conduct personal visits to patients in mental institutions.
As a representative of the WCCC, in 1946 Mrs. Wendel joined the Committee for the Improved Care of the Mentally Ill, which worked to pool the efforts of groups and individuals working to improve the care and treatment of patients in state and county facilities. Under CICMI's sponsorship, Mrs. Wendel established a series of institutional service units at Mendota State Hospital, Southern Wisconsin Colony, and the Milwaukee County Asylum. Modelled after a project by the American Friends, the ISUs trained work-study students to serve as attendants and recreation leaders. Although CICMI folded in 1947, Mrs. Wendel continued to organize ISUs until 1949.
In 1945, Mrs. Wendel also helped to form the Milwaukee County Mental Health Committee, a local affiliate of the National Association for Mental Health. In 1950 the committee incorporated and changed its name to the Milwaukee County Society for Mental Health. The purpose of the group was largely educational; it sponsored lectures, workshops, and an annual mental health week. Mrs. Wendel was active in the group's education committee as secretary and member until 1952, when she became vice president of the MCSMH and chair of its publications committee.
In 1947, Mrs. Wendel served as secretary to the Milwaukee County Preparatory Commission for the International Congress on Mental Health. The congress met in London in 1950 and the Milwaukee commission presented a paper which explored the links between child rearing methods and attitudes towards war.
Mrs. Wendel's activities in Milwaukee ended in 1953 when her husband became technical director for the Pan-American Yeast and Products Company, and the Wendels moved to Brazil. In 1955, they returned to California when Hans became a chemical engineer for the Red Star Yeast Company.
In California, Mrs. Wendel joined the Contra Costa County Mental Health Association (CCCMHA). In 1956 she was elected vice president, and in 1959 she became president. Her participation in the CCCMHA reflected her interests in mental health education, outreach, and direct aid to the institutionalized mentally ill. During the period of her leadership the association sponsored lectures, plays, and workshops on mental health and organized volunteers to visit patients at Napa State Hospital. Mrs. Wendel also represented the CCCMHA at annual meetings of its parent organization, the California Association for Mental Health, and she sat on its Volunteer Service Committee. Mrs. Wendel left the CCCMHA in 1961 in a disagreement over its purpose and future direction. Nevertheless, she continued to perform volunteer work at Napa State Hospital.
Interest in the role of religion in her own recovery from mental illness led her to help form a chapter of the National Academy of Religion and Mental Health in Contra Costa County in l961. This group brought medical professionals, church officials, and lay people together to discuss the relationship between religion, psychiatry, and mental health. In 1963 she joined a second chapter (East Bay) for which she served as secretary and steering committee member. Eventually Mrs. Wendel broke with the leadership of this organization due to a dispute over the leadership role of non-professionals.
In the early 1960s, Mrs. Wendel enrolled in courses at the Human Growth Institute in order to qualify as an instructor of her own Human Growth group. The program combined religion with Maslow-derived psychology and promoted the development of human potential through self-awareness and self-actualization. After completing her training in 1964, she developed her own human potential courses and promotional materials but was unsuccessful in attracting students.
From 1967 to 1968, Mrs. Wendel was secretary of the California Committee for Improved Treatment in Our State Hospitals, a committee formed in response to Governor Ronald Reagan's proposals to cut funding to state-run mental health facilities. The committee organized petitions and letter-writing campaigns to lobby the legislature for increased staffing levels and salaries for state hospital employees.
In 1978, Lulu Wendel was named Contra Costa County Volunteer of the Year in recognition for her more than twenty years of mental health activities.
