Manufacturers Bank Founder Leonard Weil
Leonard Weil, the founding president and chief executive of Manufacturers Bank for 24 years, has died. He was 85.
The longtime banker and World War II veteran died at his Tarzana, Calif., home on April 7 from complications from failing health, his family said.
Weil had years of experience in the banking industry when he was asked in 1962 to become founding president and chief executive of a new bank in downtown Los Angeles that would cater to the apparel industry. The bank was formed by a group of people in the garment industry with the goal of serving small- and medium-sized businesses.
In 1981, Manufacturers Bank was purchased by Mitsui Bank Ltd. of Japan. Weil ran the bank for five more years until he retired. Upon his retirement, the bank gave him the title of president emeritus for the rest of his life.
Weil grew up in Los Angeles, attending Los Angeles High School and the University of California, LosAngeles , where he graduated in 1943 with a bachelor of arts degree in economics. During World War II, he served as a translator, listening to German fighter pilots and deciphering what they were saying. After the war, he stayed in Vienna, Austria, working for the U.S. State Department to re-evaluate programs to restructure the country’s financial institutions.
After returning to the United States, he started working for Union Bank in 1947, where he stayed for 16 years.
After his retirement, Weil taught at UCLA’s AndersonSchool of Management as an adjunct assistant professor. In 2001, he decided to retire from teaching, saying it was too difficult for a 79-year-old to keep up with the bright students in his classes.
His daughter Susan described him as “bigger than life.”
Weil is survived by his wife of 55 years, Janice; three daughters; one son; and seven grandchildren.
Services were held April 10 at Hillside Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Martin H. Weil Fund at the John Wayne Cancer Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., or to the Braille Institute in Los Angeles. —Deborah Belgum
