Bill Orthwein

William Robert Orthwein (October 16, 1881 – October 2, 1955) was an American sportsman, attorney, business executive and political activist. He was an Olympic bronze medalist in both water polo and the 4x50 freestyle swimming relay at the 1904 St. Louis Olympics.

Early life William Robert Orthwein was born on October 16, 1881, in St. Louis, Missouri to William David and Emily Helen Thummler. His father, William D. Orthwein, was a German-born grain merchant with a successful business. William R. Orthwein attended St. Louis's Smith Academy, a boys' school well known for quality academics, and the Peabody Elementary School. While at Yale in November 1902, he was arrested on charges of assaulting a ticket seller for a Yale-Harvard football game, and was assessed with a fine the following month.

Athletic career Orthwein swam for the Missouri Athletic Club, under Alex Meffert as swimming director, and had been a founder of the club. Meffert coached and trained the swimmers and water polo players who attended the 1904 Olympics. Meffert advocated a traditional crawl stroke, with the body aligned parallel to the bottom of the pool, and a single breath taken after a left and right arm stroke cycle, but generally advocated a single two-beat kick per stroke cycle. While he worked with the members of the New York Athletic Club before the Olympics in July and part of August, 1904, the Missouri Club was trained by Assistant Coach and Instructor Pete Rodgers, and Orthwein who served as team Captain. Meffert had been the regular coach, and returned to train the Missouri club's swimmers and water polo players in late August, 1904.

1904 St. Louis Olympics Orthwein competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics as a freestyle and backstroke swimmer and compete for the Missouri Athletic Club's water polo team. Orthwein's Missouri Athletic Club Team lost to the first place gold medal team from the New York Athletic Club 5–0 in the semi-final round. The silver medal team, the Chicago Athletic Association, lost to the New York Athletic Club team in the final round 6–0. As a primary client, he was the vice president and general counsel for the Kinloch Telephone Company from 1916 to 1923. In that capacity, he refused to sell the business to the Bell Telephone Company. In 1950, he ran without success for St. Louis's City Collector of Revenue. In service to the community, Orthwein had served as a President of the St. Louis Lawyers Association, and had been a Secretary of St. Louis's Legal Aid Society, then part of the Bar Association.