Sumner Merrill Wells, Jr. (1889-1966), a prominent physician in Grand Rapids, Michigan, was the son of Sumner Merrill Wells, Sr. (1862-1931), a wholesale grocer and mercantile broker, and Sarah Althea (Stephenson) Wells (1867-1937), an active member of First Methodist Church and various civic clubs.

Merrill Wells graduated from Central High School in 1907 (class president), the University of Chicago in 1912 (cum laude), and Rush Medical College in 1914. He interned at Children's Memorial and Presbyterian Hospitals in Chicago. In October 1936, the younger Wells married Minerva Ford, the daughter of J.E. Ford of Grand Rapids.

During World War I, Wells served in the Red Cross Hospital Unit Q. Unit Q was formed by the Grand Rapids chapter of the Red Cross, which raised close to $90,000 for its outfit. The majority of the unit's personnel--doctors, nurses, and enlisted men--hailed from Michigan, many came from the western part of the state. By December 1917, the unit mobilized at Ft. McPherson, Georgia, to train for duty in Europe. Called up the following May, Unit Q left from New York, arrived in England, and was located at Knotty Ash, a hospital camp outside Liverpool. In June 1918, the unit relocated to the American Red Cross Military Hospital (ARCMH) #5 on the Auteil horse racing course near Paris, France. Housed in tents, the hospital could be loaded on trucks and moved within a few hours. ARCMH #5 was the largest of its kind in France and at times cared for as many as 2,400 patients. In January 1919 Unit Q moved to Bordeaux to form part of Base Hospital #208. During the next month the Unit began to demobilize. Some personnel returned to the United States and others transferred to Germany or Romania.

Wells was commissioned on August 8, 1917, as a first lieutenant in Unit Q. At Auteil he worked in the laboratory studying infectious diseases. Later, in Bordeaux, he remained in medical service and was also appointed historian of the hospital. Sent stateside in March 1919, Dr. Wells was promoted to captain and stationed in New Jersey. Upon his own request, he was transferred to Fort MacArthur, California and remained there until his discharge in April 1919. At that time he became a member of the Medical Reserve Corps.

Following the War, Dr. Wells returned to Grand Rapids. From 1919 to 1921 he served as medical Director of Blodgett Memorial Hospital. In 1921 he returned to private practice in internal medicine. Following the discovery of insulin in 1922, Wells became one of the first doctors in West Michigan to use it in the treatment of diabetes. Interest in chest diseases led him to contribute time to free clinics of the Kent County Anti-Tuberculosis Society. In 1924 Dr. Wells was instrumental in establishing the Grand Rapids Clinic. He worked there until 1929 when he returned to private practice in offices downtown. In 1944-45 he served as chief of staff at Blodgett, and from then until his retirement in 1962, he was a consultant at Blodgett and a member of the courtesy staffs of Butterworth and St. Mary's Hospitals.

Wells was a fellow of the American Medical Association and the American College of Physicians, and a member of First Methodist Church, American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, the Kent County and Michigan State Medical Societies, Delta Upsilon fraternity and Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity.