Kermit Roosevelt MC (October 10, 1889 – June 4, 1943) was an American businessman, soldier, explorer, and writer. A son of Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States, Kermit graduated from Harvard College, served in both World Wars (with the British and U.S. Armies), and explored two continents with his father. He fought a lifelong battle with depression and died by suicide while serving in the US Army in Alaska during World War II.
Childhood and education
Kermit was born in 1889 at Sagamore Hill, the family estate in Oyster Bay, New York, the second son of Theodore Roosevelt, (1858–1919) and Edith Kermit Carow (1861–1948). He had an older half-sister Alice Lee Roosevelt (1884–1980), from his father's first marriage to Alice Hathaway Lee (1861–1884), an elder brother, Theodore III (1887–1944), a younger sister, Ethel Carow Roosevelt (1891–1977), and two younger brothers; Archibald Bulloch "Archie" Roosevelt (1894–1979) and Quentin Roosevelt (1897–1918).
As a child, he had little resistance to illness and infection. He had a flair for language, however, and read avidly. He showed a writing talent that led to his recording his experiences in World War I in a book.
After attending the Groton School, he enrolled at Harvard College. In 1909, as a freshman, he and his father (recently out of office as president)—both of whom loved nature and outdoor sports—went on a year-long expedition in Africa funded by the Smithsonian Institution. After this trip and a swing through Europe, Roosevelt returned to Harvard and completed four years of study in two and a half years, graduating with the Class of 1912. Like his father, while at Harvard he was a member of the Porcellian Club, a student social organization.
