John F. McGillicuddy, 78, Banking Leader, Is Dead Prosate Cancer Victim

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By ERIC DASH
Published: January 6, 2009
John F. McGillicuddy, who assembled one of first big bank mergers in the wave of consolidation that emerged from the economic slump of the early 1990s, the one between Manufacturers Hanover and Chemical Bank, died on Sunday at his home in Harrison, N.Y. He was 78.


Bill Cunningham/The New York Times

The cause was complications of prostate cancer, said a spokesman for JPMorgan Chase, which absorbed the combined company a decade later in another landmark deal.

One of the leading bankers of his generation, Mr. McGillicuddy played a pivotal role in providing financial assistance to New York City during its fiscal crisis in the 1970s. He later helped orchestrate the private-public lending partnership to bail out Chrysler in the 1980s. He also advised two presidents — Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush — three governors and two mayors on financial issues.

As chairman and chief executive of Manufacturers Hanover, Mr. McGillicuddy became a chief architect of banking consolidation. The 1991 deal between the Manufacturers Hanover Corporation and the Chemical Banking Corporation came after both were reeling from more than a decade of lending excesses. At the time, it was the largest bank merger in the United States and ushered in a wave of flashy deals that transformed the financial landscape.

“That was the beginning of the consolidation process that played out in the 1990s, and you are still seeing it,” said William B. Harrison Jr., the former J.P. Morgan chairman who was one of Mr. McGillicuddy’s eventual successors after Chemical Bank merged with the Chase Manhattan Corporation in 1996. Both were absorbed by J.P. Morgan in 2000.

Mr. McGillicuddy played on Princeton’s undefeated football teams in 1950 and 1951 before heading to Harvard Law School. After stints in the Navy and at the law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, he joined Manufacturers Trust Company in 1958. Thirteen years later, at the age of 40, Mr. McGillicuddy was elected president, becoming one of the youngest executives ever to run a major money center bank.

After the merger, Mr. McGillicuddy retired as the chairman and chief executive of Chemical Banking in 1993, but served on a number of charitable and corporate boards, including those of the Boy Scouts of America, Kraft, United Airlines and U.S. Steel.

Mr. McGillicuddy is survived by his wife, Constance, a friend since childhood to whom he was married for over 50 years; his sister, Mary Jean O’Connell of Harrison; five children: Michael Sean McGillicuddy of Astoria; Faith Burtis Benoit of Rye; Constance Erin Mills of New Canaan, Conn.; Brian Munro McGillicuddy of Harrison; and John Walsh McGillicuddy of Harrison; and six grandchildren.

More Articles in Business »A version of this article appeared in print on January 7, 2009, on page A20 of the New York edition.