Palen Conway

William Palen Conway Sr. (August 7, 1881 – August 15, 1974), generally known as Palen Conway or W. Palen Conway, was an American banker who served successively as president, chairman of the board, and chairman of the executive committee of the Guaranty Trust Company of New York, then one of the largest banks in the United States. He entered Guaranty Trust's bond department in 1911, became president in 1934, became chairman in 1941, and retired from active banking in 1948. Guaranty Trust later merged with J.P. Morgan & Co. to form Morgan Guaranty Trust Company.

Conway was also a board director of the Prudential Insurance Company of America, the Guaranty Safe Deposit Company, and the Bank of Central and South America. Within the New York Clearing House, he chaired its nominating committee and, in 1939–1940, its influential Clearing House Committee.

Early life and family

Conway was born on August 7, 1881, in Sea Bright, New Jersey, the son of Thomas G. Conway and Annie L. Palen Conway. He attended public school and began his business career in brokerage in 1900. His elder sister, Louise Palen Conway, married nationally ranked tennis player and administrator Holcombe Ward in 1906.

At age 19, Conway began his business career with the Washington Life Insurance Company. From 1901 through 1908 he worked in the general brokerage business, followed by three years in bond brokerage. This experience brought him into securities distribution just as New York trust companies were expanding beyond traditional fiduciary work into commercial banking and underwriting.

Conway married Rebecca Ambrose. They had two sons, William Palen Conway Jr. (1914–1944) and Philip Conway (1918–2012). The younger William graduated from Princeton University in 1936, became a petroleum geologist, and served in the United States Army during World War II. A major, he was killed in action in the Southwest Pacific on April 1, 1944, at age 30. Philip later became a banker at First National City Bank, retiring as a senior vice president in 1976.

Guaranty Trust career

Conway joined the Guaranty Trust Company of New York in February 1911 as a bond trader. He was appointed assistant treasurer in 1913, treasurer in March 1916, and vice president in September 1916. By 1920 Conway was referred to as "a rising power in the world of finance" in Munsey's Magazine.

In 1922 Conway became a director of the newly organized Bank of Central and South America, an institution created to conduct and develop business between the United States and Latin America. Its board brought together representatives of Guaranty Trust, J.P. Morgan & Co., Brown Brothers, the Corn Exchange Bank, the Mechanics and Metals National Bank, and industrial firms with Latin American interests. Critics of contemporary American financial expansion later cited Conway's presence on that interlocking board as an example of Wall Street's role in Latin American investment.

Conway was elected to Guaranty Trust's board of directors in 1924.

In January 1930 Conway was elected a director of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. He remained simultaneously a vice president and director of Guaranty Trust and a director of its safe-deposit affiliate.

President

At Guaranty Trust's annual meeting on January 17, 1934, the directors elected Conway president and advanced the incumbent president, William C. Potter, to chairman of the board. Conway thus took day-to-day leadership of the bank during the reorganization of American finance under the Banking Act of 1933, the creation of federal deposit insurance, and the statutory separation of commercial banking from securities underwriting. The bank liquidated its securities affiliate, the Guaranty Company of New York, to comply with the new regulatory structure.

Conway and Potter jointly presented the bank's annual accounts and policy discussions. During the prolonged low-interest environment of the 1930s they emphasized the difficulty of profitably employing an abundance of deposits while commercial demand for credit remained weak. For 1936 the bank reported earnings of approximately $13.4 million, up from about $12.8 million in 1935. Its mid-1937 published statement showed resources approaching $2 billion.

The 1937 annual report, issued in January 1938, recorded earnings of $13.66 million and dividends of $10.8 million. Conway wrote that the bank's outlook remained closely tied to the revival of business borrowing and international trade. Earnings fell to about $12.17 million in 1938 as demand for productive credit remained subdued.

Chairman and wartime banking

At the annual meeting on January 15, 1941, Potter relinquished active duties under Guaranty Trust's succession and retirement system. Conway, after seven years as president, succeeded him as chairman of the board; Stetson became president, and Potter became chairman of the executive committee.

The leadership change came as the European war transformed international banking. In the 1940 annual report, Conway noted the freezing of funds belonging to countries under occupation, disruptions to established foreign-exchange markets, the dollar's new position as the principal international standard of value, and the accumulation of unprecedented United States gold reserves. He also reported that Guaranty Trust's London office had reopened soon after bomb damage and that business continued at its other overseas branches.

Stetson succeeded Conway as board chairman in 1944. Conway moved to the executive committee, initially described in trade reporting as its vice chairman and later as chairman. He continued as chairman of the executive committee after Stetson retired from active bank management and J. Luther Cleveland became board chairman in January 1947. Published statements still identified Conway as executive-committee chairman in early 1948. He retired from active service later that year but remained a director of the bank.

Later directorship

After his executive retirement, Conway continued to appear on Guaranty Trust's board with Cleveland, Stetson, Potter, George E. Roosevelt, Cornelius F. Kelley, and other prominent corporate figures. His directorship was repeatedly reported in the bank's published statements during the 1950s. By 1957, bank publications listed him as a director emeritus.

Banking-industry leadership and public activities

Conway was active in the New York Clearing House Association while serving as Guaranty Trust's president. In 1934 he chaired the association's nominating committee. By 1936 he was serving on a committee of leading metropolitan bankers that included S. Sloan Colt, Artemus L. Gates, Harvey D. Gibson, and James H. Perkins. He joined the Clearing House Committee in 1938 and was elected its chairman in October 1939, succeeding Harry E. Ward of Irving Trust. Gordon S. Rentschler succeeded him in 1940.

Conway also participated in civic and charitable work. He was among the trustees elected during a fundraising and expansion campaign for the Trudeau sanatorium at Saranac Lake, New York, an institution founded for the treatment of tuberculosis. His recreational interests included competitive yachting; in 1935, he was the Middle Atlantic representative in an intersectional sailing competition.

In 1937 Conway contributed an essay, “A Tribute to Louis Dapples, International Banker,” to a commemorative volume honoring Swiss banker and Nestlé chairman Louis Dapples.

Death

Conway died at his home in Short Hills, New Jersey, on August 15, 1974, aged 93. He was buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in the Bronx. He was survived by his son Philip; his elder son, William Jr., had predeceased him during World War II.

Selected work