San Francisco
County
Biographies
CARL
FREDERICK WENTE
Carl
Frederick Wente, president of the Bank of America,
was born in Livermore, California, March 27, 1889; the son of Carl Heinrich
(emigrated from Germany in 1879) and Barbara (Trautwein)
Wente.
Mr. Wente
attended the public grade and high schools in Livermore, California, then went
to Oakland to begin his banking career, where he started as a messenger for the
Central Bank, April of 1907; then in September of 1907 he worked in the First
National Bank at Livermore. On February 1, 1918, he became associated with the
Bank of America at Madera (branch bank), California, rising to manager. In 1921
he moved to Fresno, California, then to Modesto, Visalia, Merced, and Stockton,
California. Became assistant vice president in 1927 at San Francisco, vice
president in 1929 and executive vice president in 1932. During this period he
spent nearly six months on a tour of inspection of California banks with A. P. Giannini, which led to Mr. Wente
going to Nevada where he became chairman of the Board of the First National
Bank in Reno (name later changed to First National Bank of Nevada) in June of
1934, and also president two months later. In 1937 he returned to Oakland,
California, where he became president of the Central Bank, the same bank he had
started in as a messenger thirty years before, and remained with them until
July of 1943. Then became senior vice president of Bank of America at San
Francisco and after six years with them, he retired. Upon the death of Mr. L.
M. Giannini, Mr. Wente
returned to the Bank of America, of which he became president in September of
1952. He is also member of the Board of Directors and chairman of the General
Executive Committee, Bank of America.
Among the various posts currently
held by Mr. Wente are the following: Director of Firemans Fund Insurance Company, San Francisco, First
National Bank, Portland, Oregon, Marina Improvement Association, San Francisco;
chairman of Water Resources Committee and Director of California State Chamber
of Commerce; chairman of Board of Trustees of San Francisco Bureau of
Governmental Research; member of California Fish and Game Commission; member,
Commerce and Marine Commission of the American Bankers Association, Investors
Panel (Transportation Association), and San Francisco Arbitration Panel of New
York Stock Exchange; member of Forest Service Advisory Council, California
Region; member of Executive Committee of Grand National Livestock Exposition;
member-at-large of National Council of Boy Scouts of America, and member of
Regional Executive Committee. He is a Republican.
Member of San Francisco and Los
Angeles Chambers of Commerce; California Duck Hunters Association (president);
Ducks Unlimited; Masonic Order; A.A.O.N.M.S. (Shrine; and the following clubs:
Stock Exchange, Bohemian, Commercial, Rotary (member of Business Counsel
Committee), and St. Francis Yacht (San Francisco).
Mr. Wente
married Jessie Huldah Orelup
January 19, 1915. They maintain a home at 537 Marina Boulevard, San Francisco,
and a summer home at Ben Lomond, Santa Cruz Mountains, California.
Offices: 300 Montgomery Street, San Francisco,
California.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Pages 443-444, C. W. Taylor Publ., Palo
Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.
San Francisco County Biographies