Robinson Kendall Nottingham, the former executive vice president of global insurance giant American International Group Inc. and a trustee of the Johns Hopkins University, died May 20 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, several days after suffering a stroke. He was 70.
Mr. Nottingham's 38-year career at AIG was hardly the stuff of gray-suited stereotype, offering him adventures in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War era and close calls in Iran during the Islamic Revolution.
He climbed the corporate ladder in New York but remained faithful to the Baltimore institutions that nurtured his intellectual development and became was a major donor to Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.
"Ken was a man of character, courage and loyalty," former AIG CEO Maurice "Hank" Greenberg wrote in a statement that will be read at a memorial service this week. "If you were in a foxhole, he was the partner you would want to have. There are not many men you can say that about."
Mr. Nottingham was born in Bolton Hill and attended the now-closed Corpus Christi School. After graduating in 1955 from Polytechnic Institute, he enrolled at Johns Hopkins, where he majored in political science and was president of the Delta Phi fraternity.
Nearly 50 years later, when he was invited to serve on the university's Board of Trustees, Mr. Nottingham would take advantage of requisite board meetings in Baltimore to stop by the fraternity house in Charles Village.
"He liked to go to Hopkins lacrosse games and mow the lawn at the fraternity house," said his wife, Elizabeth L. Nottingham, also a Baltimore native.
After earning his bachelor's degree in 1959, Mr. Nottingham spent eight years as an intelligence officer in the Navy based at Pearl Harbor and Washington, specializing in Southeast Asia and Africa. He retired with the rank of lieutenant commander, but his insurance career took him and his young family back to that part of the world.
As a regional manager with Hong Kong-based AIG, Mr. Nottingham spent four years in Bangkok, Thailand, where he managed the insurance of U.S. defense contractors and oil companies across Southeast Asia.
"I was always a little worried when he would get in the plane and go to Saigon for a couple of days," said Mrs. Nottingham.
He also worked as a managing director in Nigeria, "not exactly a holiday resort," Mr. Greenberg said.
