First National Bank

Charles W. Cole Jr., the chief executive officer of the First National Bank of Maryland and a longtime member of a dwindling local corps of influential corporate citizens, said yesterday that he will retire from the company after 32 years.Mr. Cole, 58, has served 10 years as chief executive and 17 years aspresident and chief administrative officer of First National and its parent company, First Maryland Bancorp. A Baltimore native, he spent his entire career at the company, now a subsidiary of Allied Irish Group Plc, of Dublin, Ireland.

William Francis Bender Jr., a computer and data processing executive, died Tuesday of heart failure at St. Agnes Hospital. He was 69. Born in Baltimore, Mr. Bender lived his entire life in Catonsville. After graduating in 1960 from Mount St. Joseph High School in Irvington, he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1964 from what is now Loyola University Maryland. He went to work as a manager trainee for the old Union Trust Co. "Computers were just coming in, and the bank wanted bankers to be trained by bankers and not computer people, and that's what Bill did," said his wife of 42 years, the former Joan Zins, a registered nurse.

Robert W. Schaefer, First National Bank of Maryland's chief financial officer, is retiring, bringing to a close a 45-year career at the bank.Schaefer, 62, will leave the $10.5 billion-asset First National Aug. 31 to become executive director of the France-Merrick Foundations, a Towson-based philanthropic organization that awards grants to groups involved in education, arts, conservation and health and social services."

Robert M. Cheston Sr., a retired banker and longtime Roland Park resident, died of respiratory failure Jan. 27 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 87. Mr. Cheston was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended William Penn Charter School and graduated in 1939 from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He attended the University of Virginia until the outbreak of World War II, when he enlisted in the Navy. Specializing in naval radio intelligence, Mr. Cheston held posts in Washington and the Aleutian Islands, where he read Japanese and German codes.

Adrian LeRoy McCardell Jr., retired president and chairman of the former First National Bank of Maryland, died of cancer Saturday at his home in the Poplar Hill neighborhood of North Baltimore. He was 94. He was a leader in Baltimore's banking community during the 1960s and 1970s, when area financial institutions sought to open more branches and consumer credit card use rose, and he helped guide the bank in those areas. He joined First National in 1958, and became president in 1961 and chairman in 1968.

An article in Sunday's Howard County Sun about Cedar Lane School's penny fund-raising projects misidentified the bank accepting donations for the school. First National Bank, the school's business partner, is accepting donations.* The Sun regrets the error.

Authorities are seeking a man suspected of robbing seven banks in the Baltimore metropolitan area and southern Pennsylvania since July 1995.According to the FBI, the most recent robbery occurred Feb. 23 at the First National Bank branch in the 7600 block of Bellona Ave. in Baltimore County.The man also is being sought in these robberies:First National Bank of Central Maryland in Bel Air on Dec. 28.Bank of Lancaster County in Strasburg, Pa., on Dec. 21.Farmers First Bank in Ephrata, Pa., on Dec. 2.First National Bank of Maryland at the Crossroads Square Shopping Center in Westminster on Aug. 11.Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust Co. Bank in the 5100 block of Rolling Road on Aug. 8.First National Bank of Maryland in Hereford on July 26, 1995The man is described as about 5 feet 8 inches tall, between 160 and 180 pounds and 35 to 45.The FBI says the man gives tellers typewritten notes demanding money and places the cash in a multi-colored pouch; and sometimes wears caps with University of Maryland and Notre Dame logos and sunglasses.

A dye-stained gunman yesterday eluded police after robbing a downtown bank branch, Baltimore police reported.The man entered the First National Bank branch in the 700 block of North Howard Street about 1:30 p.m. and robbed a teller, police said. He fled with the money in a bag that contained a concealed dye pack. After the dye pack exploded, the robber dropped the bag on the sidewalk and fled.

It might seem like fighting a tank with a pea shooter, but bankers across the country are trying to solve an $800 million problem with a $2.50 product.In Texas, Nevada, Arizona and more than a dozen other states, bankers are fighting check fraud by equipping tellers with ink pads so they can affix the thumbprint of customers who aren't regular patrons of the bank to the backs of checks they cash.Maryland bankers are considering the strategy, but haven't decided if they like it.The idea has drawn remarkable interest because banks are losing millions each year to organized crime and gang members who steal checks or duplicate payroll checks and then cash them.

Robert M. Cheston Sr., a retired banker and longtime Roland Park resident, died of respiratory failure Jan. 27 at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. He was 87. Mr. Cheston was born and raised in Philadelphia. He attended William Penn Charter School and graduated in 1939 from Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Va. He attended the University of Virginia until the outbreak of World War II, when he enlisted in the Navy. Specializing in naval radio intelligence, Mr. Cheston held posts in Washington and the Aleutian Islands, where he read Japanese and German codes.

Marion A. Backof, a retired bank supervisor and former Highlandtown and Dundalk resident, died Saturday of cancer at a Pensacola, Fla., hospice. She was 93. Marion Geiger was born and raised in Baltimore and attended city public schools. She was married in 1941 to Joseph Backof, an accountant, and together the couple owned and operated Backof's, a confectionary store at Eden Street and Fait Avenue, from 1948 to 1961. After her husband's death in 1964, she went to work as a bank teller at the Eastern Avenue branch of the old St. James Savings Bank.

Clara Amoss Davis, a former First National Bank manager, died of heart disease Saturday at the Dove House of Carroll Hospice in Westminster. The longtime Catonsville resident was 94. Born Clara Tucker in Baltimore and raised in Catonsville, she attended Catonsville High School. As a young woman, she did clerical work for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Mrs. Davis began her banking career in 1948 at the old Catonsville National Bank on Frederick Road. After its merger, she became a branch manager for the First National Bank.

Margaret Y. Wilson, a retired banker and volunteer, died of cancer Sunday at her Street home. She was 65. She was born and raised Margaret Young in Rose Hill, Va., and began her banking career in Richmond, Va. After moving to Lutherville in 1974, she went to work for the old First National Bank, She managed its Roland Park branch and later worked at the regional headquarters in Towson. In 1980, she joined her husband as a director and officer of R.J. Wilson & Associates Ltd. and Affiliates, an Abingdon insurance firm.

E. A. "Dean" Docken Jr., a bank executive and avid golfer, died of a heart attack Thursday at his Hunt Valley home. He was 50. Mr. Docken was born in Heidelberg, Germany, the son of a career Army officer, and raised there and in Kentucky, Texas and Maryland, said his wife of 10 years, the former Susan Baker. Mr. Docken was a 1974 graduate of Bel Air High School and earned a bachelor's degree in political science and history in 1979 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he played lacrosse, rowed crew and was an active member of Delta Upsilon fraternity.

J. Owen Cole, retired president of the old First National Bank and a fixture in the Baltimore business community for more than 45 years, died of cancer Nov. 2 at his vacation home in Lincolnville, Maine. The Annapolis resident was 76. Mr. Cole sat on numerous boards of local industries. He traveled extensively as a trade development consultant for then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer, a longtime friend who named him to the Maryland Transportation Commission, BWI Airport Commission and Maryland Port Commission.

Adrian LeRoy McCardell Jr., retired president and chairman of the former First National Bank of Maryland, died of cancer Saturday at his home in the Poplar Hill neighborhood of North Baltimore. He was 94. He was a leader in Baltimore's banking community during the 1960s and 1970s, when area financial institutions sought to open more branches and consumer credit card use rose, and he helped guide the bank in those areas. He joined First National in 1958, and became president in 1961 and chairman in 1968.

First National Bank of Chicago cut its prime rate today to 9 percent after the Federal Reserve Board announced it was lowering its key bank lending rate from 6.5 percent to 6 percent, effective immediately. It was the second drop in the benchmark rate in five weeks. The Fed dropped the rate from 7 percent to 6.5 percent Dec. 18.The government also said today that the unemployment rate in the United States climbed to 6.2 percent in January, its highest level since 1987, adding 115,000 Americans to the jobless rolls.

A gunman in a white Nike baseball cap and mirrored sunglasses robbed a Severna Park bank of an undisclosed amount of money yesterday.County police said the bandit walked into the First National Bank in the 500 block of Benfield Road just after 2 p.m., pulled a gun and demanded money.A teller handed money over, and the man ran out with it.Police had no detailed description of the gunman. They said he may have escaped in a black Hyundai that sped away on Benfield Road toward Route 2.Pub Date: 5/08/97

Lionel M. Depot, an Allfirst Bank vice president who supervised banks in Carroll and Baltimore counties, died Thursday of cancer at his Westminster home. He was 55. Mr. Depot, who was known as Lee, recently oversaw the opening of the new Allfirst branch in Eldersburg. He began his career with Allfirst's predecessor, First National Bank, in 1987, and retired on a medical disability this year because of failing health. Born and raised in New Britain, Conn., Mr. Depot was a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas, a high school there, and earned his bachelor's degree in economics from Saint Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. He served in the Army in the late 1960s, and worked in restaurant management before joining First National Bank.

Allfirst Bank's roots go back nearly 200 years in Maryland. It started as Mechanics Bank of Baltimore, organized in 1806 - one of only 30 banks in the nation at the time. After several name changes and mergers, it became First National Bank of Maryland, which was established in 1864 and distinguished itself by continuously paying dividends to shareholders, even during the Great Depression. For years, First National's parent company, First Maryland Bancorp, aggressively acquired small banks in the state.