San Francisco County
Biographies
RICHARD
MONTGOMERY TOBIN
Distinguished among the citizens of San Francisco is Richard Montgomery Tobin, secretary and treasurer of the Hibernia Savings & Loan Society and former envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Netherlands, who has been prominently identified with important banking affairs of San Francisco for many years and has served his government with distinction both during and since the World war period.
Richard M. Tobin was born in San Francisco, California, April 9, 1866, a son of Richard and Mary (Regan) Tobin. He was educated at St. Ignatius College and also studied in Europe for a time. He prepared himself for the practice of law, but did not take up this profession as he had originally intended. His activities in San Francisco have chiefly been concerned with banking. In 1889 he was appointed a director of the Hibernia Savings & Loan Society, and in 1906 he was named to his present dual official position in this institution. He was selected as president of the Association Savings Banks of San Francisco, and in 1922 was made chairman of the San Francisco group of the California Bankers Association.
In politics Mr. Tobin has been extraordinarily active for the greater period of his active career. He was chairman of the Roosevelt Republican League of California in 1916 and chairman of the republican ways and means commission of northern California in 1920. During the World war he was conspicuous in the service of his country. On December 19, 1917, he was commissioned as a lieutenant, class four, United States Naval Reserve Force, and on January 18, 1918, he was ordered to Paris, France, as the representative of the United States cable censorship, to assume charge of all cable communications between France and the United States. On October 13, 1918, he was assigned to additional duty as assistant to the naval attaché in the American embassy in Paris. On December 5, 1918, he was attached to the American Commission to Negotiate Peace in Paris, and in this position he remained until officially detached on March 25, 1919. From the French government he received the decoration of Commander of the Legion of Honor.
That Mr. Tobin should have further honors from his government after his loyal and brilliant war service was the natural and logical thing. On March 5, 1923, he became envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the Netherlands, and in this capacity he served until 1929, a longer period of service than given by any former diplomat in this position. He discharged his duties and responsibilities with keen judgment, fine tact, and with steadfast attention to the dignity and rights of his native land. His marked executive ability, as manifested previously in his banking and war-time activities, was further demonstrated in his conduct of the delicate diplomatic affairs which were placed in his hands. In recognition of his services the government of the Netherlands decorated him with the highest order, The Grand Cross of Orange-Nassau. In 1929, Mr. Tobin resigned as minister to the Netherlands and returned to his beloved San Francisco, here to resume his banking connections.
Mr. Tobin is a devout communicant of the Roman Catholic Church. He is a member of the Provincial Society for Arts and Sciences of Utrecht, and belongs to the Pacific Union and University Clubs of San Francisco and the Knickerbocker and Grolier Clubs of New York.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 3 Pages 74-78.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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