“Complexities?” Bad! “Simple and Secure?” Good!

My favorite blog begins its May 5, 1931 post with the WSJ obituary of George F. Baker, "dean of U.S. bankers," dead at 91.

George Fisher Baker started his financial career at age 16, served in the Union army, co-founded one of the forerunners of Citibank at age 23, and advised the Lincoln administration on banking matters. He ultimately became twice (or was it ten times?) as rich as J.P. Morgan, depending on who was counting.

If Mr. Baker had been around in recent years, it seems safe to say he would not have been a synthetic-CDO type of banker. The WSJ observes:

It is not without meaning that one of the largest and strongest of the world's banking institutions was the creation of a man who cared so little for complexities and so much for what was simple and secure.

Been to a game at Columbia's Baker Field? That's this Baker. Admired Dartmouth's Baker Memorial Library? Ditto. He also was largely responsible for funding a business school at Harvard. Read a 1924 Time write-up of Baker here.

For his daughter's wedding, Baker ordered a 1929 LaBaron Pierce Arrow
with an especially high roof, to accommodate his top hat.

Photo via Wikipedia