Former Polaris Leader Gives Big Gift

The former head of Polaris Industries is making his mark in medical research with a huge gift to the Mayo Clinic — the medical center’s largest gift in 2006.
According to a story in the Star Tribune, Hall Wendel Jr., the former president and CEO of Polaris Industries, donated $27.5 million donation to what will now be called the “Mayo Clinic W. Hall Wendel Jr. Musculoskeletal Center.”
Wendel, who led the management buyout of Polaris in 1981 and ran the company untill 1998, also made headlines for his mountain climbing, marathon running and sailing adventures, has had a lot of work done at Mayo, including having knee and shoulder replacement surgury in recent years.
“Now I can do everything I want,” Wendel said in the Star Tribuine article. “As my care progressed, I got interested in the research behind it, especially general research related to orthopedics.”
“I liked the idea of finding new solutions to old problems using the high-tech medical devices now available,” he added. “Why wait ’til I’m dead to do some good?”