Meredith Colket

Meredith Colket

Personal information
Born	November 19, 1878 Philadelphia, USA
Died	June 7, 1947 (aged 68) Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, USA
Sport
Sport	Athletics
Event	pole vault
Club	Penn Quakers, Philadelphia
Medal record Men's athletics Representing the  United States Olympic Games 1900 Paris Pole vault

Meredith Colket competing in pole vault at the 1900 Summer Olympics

Meredith Bright Colket (November 19, 1878 – June 7, 1947) was an American pole vaulter who competed in the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris and won the silver medal in the men's pole vault ahead of Norwegian Carl-Albert Andersen who won bronze. Irving Baxter won gold.^[1][2]

Biography

Colket was born on November 19, 1878, in Philadelphia. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a B.S. degree in 1901 and a LL.B degree in 1904. He was a member of Phi Gamma Delta and the varsity track team for all four of his undergraduate years. Colkert finished second in the pole jump at the British 1900 AAA Championships.^[3][4]

He organized the first tennis team at Penn and won second place at the intercollegiate tennis doubles championship in 1902. He worked as an attorney for the General Accident Fire & Life Insurance Corporation and continued to play tennis at the Merion Cricket Club.^[5] He married Alberta Kelsey on April 12, 1911, in London.^[6]

Meredith Colket gravesite in Laurel Hill Cemetery

He died of a heart attack at his home in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, on June 7, 1947,^[5] and was interred at Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.^[7]

Colket's son, Meredith B. Colket Jr. (1912–1985), was a noted genealogist.^[8]

References

1. "Meredith Colket". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 December 2020.
2. "Meredith Bright Colket". archives.upenn.edu. Retrieved November 7, 2021.
3. "AAA, WAAA and National Championships Medallists". National Union of Track Statisticians. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
4. "The Amateur Athletic Association Championships". Sporting Life. 9 July 1900. Retrieved 30 July 2024 – via British Newspaper Archive.
5. "Meredith Bright Colket". www.archives.upenn.edu. University of Pennsylvania. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
6. "The Lafayette Negative Archive". www.lafayette.org.uk. Retrieved 24 July 2021.
7. "Meredith B Colket". remembermyjourney.com. webCemeteries. Retrieved 18 December 2024.
8. "Colket, Meredith Bright Jr". www.case.edu. Case Western Reserve University. 11 May 2018. Retrieved 24 July 2021.

External links

• New York Times obituary, June 9, 1947 (subscription required)
• Phi Gamma Delta in the Olympics
• Meredith Colket at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Meredith Colket at Olympedia