MONEY & BANKING: Baker’s Boy

With the possible exception of J. P. Morgan, the name George Fisher Baker is the most illustrious in U. S. banking. Side-whiskered George Fisher Baker descended from Troy, N. Y., in 1863 helped found Manhattan’s great First National Bank. His son followed him at its helm.

The third George Fisher Baker grew up inconspicuously as many a rich boy does. From St. Paul’s School he went to Harvard, where he roomed in dowdy Kirkland House, concentrated in government, joined Hasty Pudding and Owl. No college athlete, slender George Baker made news in 1936 when he caught a 622-lb. black marlin off Panama. He made news again last summer with his marriage to Frances Drexel Munn, Philadelphia descendant of Astors and Biddies.

After the death of Board Chairman George Fisher Baker Jr. in May 1937, the First National Bank for the first time in 74 years had no Baker on its payroll. Last week George Fisher Baker 3rd, 23, returned from a round-the-world honeymoon to remedy that situation. He went to work at No. 2 Wall Street—as a runner.