Jesse Francis McClendon was born in Lanette, Alabama in 1880. He earned his B.S. in 1903 and M.S. in 1904 from the University of Texas and his Ph.D. in 1906 from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining the faculty at the University of Minnesota, Dr. McClendon was an instructor at Randolph-Macon College (Ashland, VA) (1907-1908), the University of Missouri (1907-1909) and Cornell University (1909-1914). He joined the faculty in the department of physiology at the University of Minnesota in 1914. Dr. McClendon was trained and spent many of his early years studying invertebrate zoology but was appointed to the department of physiology within the medical school at the University of Minnesota because the majority of his zoological studies involved general physiology. Dr. McClendon was promoted to professor and appointed as head of physiological chemistry in 1920. Dr. McClendon left the University of Minnesota in 1939 to become research professor of physiology at the Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia and later was a research chemist at the Albert Einstein Medical Center (Philadelphia, PA). Jesse McClendon died in 1976.

Throughout his career as a zoologist and physiological chemist, Dr. McClendon made significant contributions in a variety of fields, including invertebrate zoology, nutrition, life processes of cell membranes, the importance of pH control and the role of iodine in human health, specifically its relation to the prevention of goiters.