William Henry BRENTON

BRENTON, GRAHAM, OBRIEN

Posted By: Volunteer
Date: 7/18/2009 at 11:48:12

[began career in Clarion, Wright County, Iowa]

Quad-City Times, The (IA) - copyright
January 30, 2003

DES MOINES, IA -- William Henry Brenton, former chairman and CEO at Brenton Banks Inc. recently died in Des Moines after an illness at the age of 78. He was a resident of Naples, Fla. Mr. Brenton was active and well known in business and civic affairs for many years in Iowa. Mr. Brenton served Brenton Banks Inc. in a variety of capacities, including president from 1964 to 1969 and chairman and CEO from 1969 to 1990. He served as chairman of the executive committee until the company was sold to Wells Fargo and Co. in 2000.

He was intimately involved in the start-up of many Brenton Banks in Iowa, including all of the banks held in the major Iowa cities as well as negotiating the acquisition of the bank in Marshalltown. Mr. Brenton was born June 30, 1924, in the family house in Dallas Center, Iowa, the town where Brenton Banks received its start. Mr. Brenton was the eldest son of Harold and Etta Brenton and one of seven children. He attended school in Dallas Center until 1932 when William's father, Harold, moved the family to Minneapolis. Harold, president of the Iowa-Des Moines Bank had arranged its merger into Northwest Bank Corp., the predecessor of Wells Fargo Co. in 1932. Harold became a senior executive of that company at that time.

William lived in the Lake of the Isles, a part of the Minneapolis area until 1940. During that time, he attended Blake School and participated in the active social life of that city. In 1940, the business needs of the growing family of county banks in Iowa brought the family back to Des Moines. After a year at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Mr. Brenton finished high school at Shattuck School in Faribault, Minn., in 1944. After high school, Mr. Brenton attended Drake for a year, Grinnell for two years and graduated from the University of Iowa in 1949. He was a member of Delta Tau Delta fraternity and Beta Gamma Sigma National Honor Society. Mr. Brenton interrupted his college years to serve in the U.S. Air Force in World War II as a flight crew member in a B-17. At one point during his military service, he was stationed in Sioux Falls, S.D., where he was introduced to his future wife, Natalie Graham. The couple was married in Spirit Lake, Iowa, where Natalie's family had a summer cottage on Big Spirit Lake.

After summer jobs in various Brenton banks, including a summer in Clarion, Mr. Brenton commenced his full-time business career in the Dexter and Adel banks with a variety of duties, including being a teller and loan officer in 1949. Shortly after that, he participated in opening the first Brenton Bank in Des Moines in Beaverdale at the corner of Beaver and Urbandale
avenues. He was president of the bank on Ingersoll from 1958 to 1979. Under his direction, Brenton was one of the first banks in Iowa to apply information technology to bank processing needs. Mr. Brenton was active in many civic, professional and non-profit organizations. He served as president of the Greater Des Moines Committee in 1981. He served on the Employers Mutual Board of Directors since 1968. He was a director of the Iowa Bankers Association from 1989 to 1992 and was president of the Association of Iowa Bank Holdings Companies from 1989 to 1992.

Responding to the request of Governor Ray in 1979, Mr. Brenton and a few other Iowans founded the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, the largest organization in Iowa facilitating the preservation and restoration of Iowa's natural places. He was active with the Des Moines Art Center, serving on the board of trustees off and on from 1958 to 2001 and as president of the trustees from 1970 to 1971. He also served as Director of Coffin Trust, a trust devoted exclusively to the acquisition of art to be displayed in the Des Moines Art Center. He served as a director of Iowa Methodist Hospital, Des Moines, from 1968 to 1987. Mr. Brenton also served as a trustee of Drake University from 1956 until accepting emeritus status. He was a member of Drake's Executive Committee and chairman of the finance committee. Mr. Brenton served as a trustee of Shattuck/St. Mary's School in Faribault, Minn., from 1967 to 1972. He was one of the founding directors of the Iowa College Foundation. Mr. Brenton had numerous activities over the years to occupy his nonprofessional time.

At different times of his life, he played tennis and golf, kept a boat on the Mississippi River, which he traveled extensively, piloted his own plane, a twin-engine Aztec, went deep sea and fresh water fishing and traveled extensively, all with his family. He both enjoyed and suffered University of Iowa football, holding season tickets since his graduation, tailgating with the same group over the years near the stadium. Mr. Brenton enjoyed summers at the family place on Spirit Lake and wintered in a variety of places in Florida and further south ending up in Naples for many years. For most of his life, Mr. Bren-ton regularly traveled to New York for business and pleasure. He started traveling there with his parents for theater and restaurants. Later, he developed a taste for jazz and visited the various jazz venues in the city. For a number of years, Mr. Brenton was an avid art collector and visited art galleries in the city. He collected for both himself and Brenton Bank, putting a unique and, occasionally much discussed, contemporary art vision on the walls of the various bank locations. Additionally, he believed in supporting Iowa artists and collected a number of pieces of Ulfert Wilke and Mauricio Lasansky over the years.

Mr. Brenton is survived by his wife of 54 years, Natalie; brothers, C. Robert Brenton and Babette, of Florida, and Junius C. Brenton and Sue, Des Moines; two sisters, Carolyn O'Brien, and Samuel and Jane Eddy and John, both of Des Moines; and two sons, Woodward and Julie and William Jr. and Angela; and three grandchildren, Victoria, Theodore and Woodward T. Brenton.

Services will be 11 a.m. Saturday at Central Presbyterian Church, Des Moines. Burial will be in the Masonic Cemetery, Dallas Center, Iowa. The family will receive visitors at Dunn's Funeral Home, Des Moines, from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday. The family requests that friends consider a donation to the following organizations in lieu of sending flowers: Des Moines Art Center, Drake Uni-versity, Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation, Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum or Lakes Art Center.

Copyright 2003 by Quad-City Times