One of the biggest surprises – and announcements – from Mayor Tom Henry’s State of the City address had little to do with city government at all.Carl A. Gunkler, former president and chief executive officer of Lincoln National Bank & Trust Co., died of heart disease Saturday. He was 89.
Gunkler, a North Side High School graduate, said he was “just looking for a job” when he first joined the bank in 1939 as a messenger boy. During the next 40 years, he served in virtually every position at the bank, including auditor, assistant vice president and vice president.
Gunkler took over the helm of Lincoln National Bank in 1979 during a highly charged period at the bank, caused by its controversial role in selling private utilities in Allen County and the resignation of Gunkler’s predecessor, who left the bank under a cloud. At the time, several people called Gunkler, a “serious man,” the “perfect executive” to restore stability.
Gunkler served in the U.S. Air Force during World War II and taught banking classes at the American Institute of Banking.
He was also an avid community leader and volunteer. He took a particular interest in Junior Achievement Inc., of which he was director and instrumental fundraiser, and was director of the Downtown Fort Wayne Association, The Fort Wayne Historical Society, the Fort Wayne Convention Bureau, the Fort Wayne Chamber of Commerce, the Orchard Ridge Country Club and several other groups. He was a member of several local organizations and boards.
“He was always intensely involved in the Fort Wayne community. He always loved being involved when he was here,” said Gunkler’s sister-in-law Jane Wick.
Gunkler, whom Wick described as an “avid golfer and voracious reader,” moved to California after he retired from the bank in the early 1980s.
He moved back to Fort Wayne in 2006.
Gunkler’s second wife, Marjorie, said her husband was “warm, generous and unfailingly honest” with a “wicked sense of humor.”
She said he “never stopped being proud of the moment” in 1995 when he was one of the few white businessmen in town who escorted baseball great Jackie Robinson during his visit to Fort Wayne.
