William Rossiter Hinchman, Former School Board Member, Dies at 81

The following obituary is courtesy of Wenban Funeral Home:

William Rossiter Hinchman of Wedgewood Drive in Lake Forest, IL, died February 18, 2014 at Midwest Palliative and Hospice CareCenter in Glenview after suffering a stroke. He was 81.

He is survived by his wife of 31 years, Martha Reilly Hinchman; three children: Lee Hinchman Hobbs, of Dallas; William R. Hinchman III, of Dallas; and Elizabeth Hinchman Morrison, of College Station, TX; and three grandchildren: Catherine and Jack Hobbs, and William "Ty" Hinchman.

A career banker, Mr. Hinchman was born Jan. 30, 1933, in Pittsburgh. He graduated from The Hill School in Pottstown, PA, in 1951, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Rutgers University, from which he graduated in 1958.
Mr. Hinchman served in the U.S. Army as a Russian Linguist, stationed in Germany, from 1953 to 1956.

He began his career in banking in 1958 with Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, where he worked for 24 years in the areas of Bank Operations, Domestic Institutional Banking and the Nationwide Positioning Group. He was named an Executive Vice President in 1974.

Following Chase, Mr. Hinchman was President and CEO of American Savings and Loan Association in Salt Lake City from 1983 to 1985, during which time he oversaw a strategic conversion from a traditional thrift to a market-focused, consumer oriented financial services company.

In 1986, Mr. Hinchman joined First National Bank of Chicago and settled with his family in Lake Forest. Over the next six years he served as Head of the Credit Policy and Corporate Development divisions and Chairman of the Corporate Loan Strategy Committee until his retirement in 1992.

Mr. Hinchman was active in the community and served on the Lake Forest High School Board of Education from 1985 to 2003, first as Vice President of Finance and then as President of the Board during his last three years of service.

During his career and into retirement he was active with several professional associations, including the Association of Reserve City Bankers, the Steering Committee of the New York Clearing House Association, the Association of Bank Holding Companies, the Faculty of the Southwestern Graduate School of Banking and the Advisory Board of the Cornell University Graduate School of Business.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, February 22, at 2 p.m. at Church of the Holy Spirit in Lake Forest.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations in his memory be made to The Hill School, William R. Hinchman '51, 717 High Street, Pottstown, PA 19464, www.alumni.thehill.org. Info – Wenban Funeral Home, Lake Forest, 847-234-0022 or www.wenbanfh.com.