John H. Perkins, a civic-minded executive and president of Chicago’s largest bank in the 1970s, Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Co., died in his sleep of natural causes Tuesday, Sept. 21, at home in Winnetka. He was 83.
Mr. Perkins was born in Chicago and grew up in Evanston. He graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1939 and received a bachelor’s degree in economics with honors from Northwestern University in 1943, his son Robert said. While at Northwestern, he enrolled in the ROTC Navy officers training program and was commissioned a captain after graduation , his son said.
Mr. Perkins served in the Navy until 1946, commanding a destroyer escort in the North Atlantic and the South Pacific during World War II, his son said. He joined Continental that year as a trainee in its trust department, walking in the door of the company on a rainy day and simply applying, his son said.
Mr. Perkins was promoted to vice president in 1956, eventually to executive vice president in charge of administration, operation and retail banking by 1968. He was elected president of the bank and its holding company in 1973.
Mr. Perkins pushed to expand the company’s retail operations, leading the charge to get Illinois laws prohibiting branch banking changed, his son said.
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He was elected president of the American Bankers Association in 1978 and was chairman of the advisory committees to the U.S. treasury secretary and the governors of the Federal Reserve, his son said.
Mr. Perkins also was a trustee of the U.S. Council of the International Chamber of Commerce, director of the Private Export Funding Corporation and a founder and longtime member of the Trilateral Commission.
In Chicago, Mr. Perkins maintained close working and personal relationships with former Mayors Richard J. Daley, Michael Bilandic and Jane Byrne. Under Mr. Perkins’ leadership, Continental Bank helped bail the city out of CTA and Chicago Public Schools budget problems in the late 1970s.
Mr. Perkins was instrumental in the development of Dearborn Park, as president of the Dearborn Park Corp., and helped to found Chicago United, an interracial organization of business, civic and government leaders.
Despite his obvious political clout, Mr. Perkins preferred the banking world to politics.
“Helping in the development of Chicago, the state and the country is the responsibility of any citizen. As a banker, I can do more than most people,” he said in a 1978 Tribune interview.
Mr. Perkins resigned from Continental in 1983, a year after the bank suffered heavy losses because of the failure of loans it had made to Oklahoma City-based Penn Square Bank. He was one of a number of bank executives who stepped down.
At the time insiders said that Mr. Perkins was never directly involved with the failure.
Mr. Perkins was a lifetime trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and a lifetime trustee of Northwestern University. For 50 years he was a member of the Economic Club of Chicago.
Mr. Perkins is also survived by his wife, Len W.; two other sons, John H. Perkins Jr. and Reed F.; and two grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Christ Church, 784 Sheridan Rd., Winnetka.