BY KAREN BOSSICK

Learn about the man behind Charles Lindbergh on Wednesday when that man’s grandson talks about the events leading up to the Trans-Atlantic flight that made our world smaller.

King Lambert will present “Lindbergh, Lambert and the Spirit of St. Louis” at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 22, at Ketchum’s Community Library.

The Lambert he will talk of is Albert Bond Lambert, who helped make Lindbergh’s dream of becoming the first man to fly across the Atlantic Ocean a reality.

Lambert, who lived between 1875 and 1946, was the son of the founder of Lambert Pharmaceutical Company, which made Listerine.

He became president of the family business in 1896. But he still found time to golf, even competing in the 1900 and 1904 Summer Olympics. He placed eighth in the 1900 games, eliminated in the quarter finals. And he was part of an American team that won the silver medal in 1904.

Following the Olympics he became an aviator, taking ballooning lessons and founding the Aero Club of St. Louis. In 1909 he even became the first St. Louis resident to hold a pilot’s license. He purchased his first airplane from the Wright Brothers, taking flying lessons from Orville Wright.

In 1925 Lambert purchased a field northwest of St. Louis that had been used for ballooning and developed it with runway and hangers. The airport, which was one of the first municipal airports in the nation, still carries the Lambert name.

And two years later he became one of a handful of backers to pony up the money to purchase “The Spirit of St. Louis” for Lindbergh, who at that time flew the mail between St. Louis and Chicago.