I. Owen Funderburg 1924–2002

Banker

Banking executive I. Owen Funderburg is credited with rescuing the third largest black-owned bank in the United States, Citizens Trust Bank of Atlanta, from bankruptcy in the 1970s. Funderburg died in 2002, some ten years after his retirement as president of Citizens Trust. The Georgia native was “the dean of minority bankers in the country,” board chair of Citizens Trust, Herman J. Russell, told Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Kay Powell. Funderburg’s longtime colleague also told the newspaper that the past president was “not just a good minority banker,” declaring that “I would put him up against any president of any other bank in the country [of] our size.”

Born Ilon Owen Funderburg in 1924 in Monticello, Georgia, the future banker graduated from Morehouse College in 1947. He spent a year at the University of Michigan before beginning his career at Mechanics and Farmers’ Bank of Durham, North Carolina, as a teller. In 1959 he became the first African American to complete Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Banking program. For a number of years after that, Funderburg served as executive vice president and chief executive officer of the Gateway National Bank in St. Louis, Missouri. He was hired by Citizens Trust Bank in Atlanta in 1974.

The origins of Citizens Trust dated back to 1921, at a time when minorities faced nearly insurmountable difficulties in obtaining lending from mainstream banks. It was founded by Heman E. Perry, who owned a successful life insurance company, and four other local minority business leaders in Atlanta. The bank quickly became a source of pride in the black community, and managed to remain solvent during the Great Depression, at a time when many financial institutions across the United States had failed and depositors had lost their life savings. Citizens Trust even financed several residential subdivisions in Atlanta under the leadership of L. D. Milton, who was president from 1926 to 1971.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Citizens Trust Incorporated, bought a mortgage company, and expanded its branch network for the first time in decades. The spending program spelled doom, however, as a recession hit in the early 1970s, and the bank’s capital was rapidly depleted. In 1974 the bank lost $1.5 million in one year, partly due to loans on which payees had defaulted. Lawsuits further exhausted its resources. Funderburg came on board to save the bank. He helped it reorganize, and convinced the bank’s board to issue preferred stock and capital notes, which were then traded in exchange for operating funds in a partnership with other, more solvent Atlanta banks. The Ford Foundation also contributed funds to the bailout. By 1977 the bank was profitable again, and all debts were eventually settled. Because of this turnaround, Black Enterprise named Citizens Trust as its “Bank of the Year” in 1985. Its president was later inducted into the Atlanta Business Hall of Fame.

Funderburg was responsible for taking Citizens Trust into the modern age. When he arrived, there were no computers in use, nor any form of data processing at the bank. He introduced in-store branches and automatic teller machines for Citizens Trust customers. Funderburg was also known for his financial acumen

At a Glance…

Born on August 21, 1924, in Monticello, GA; died on January 26, 2002, in Atlanta, GA; married Clara Comeaux; children: lion Owen, Douglas, lion Edward; (stepchildren) Abe Woodson, Clarence Woodson, Jacques Woodson. Education: Morehouse College, B.A., 1947; attended University of Michigan, 1947-48; completed program at Rutgers University Graduate School of Banking, 1959.

Career: Mechanics and Farmers’ Bank, Durham, NC, teller, 1948; Gateway National Bank, St. Louis, MO, executive vice president/chief executive officer, 1966-74; Citizens Trust Bank, Atlanta, GA, president, 1974-92.

Member: Georgia World Congress Center (director).

Awards: Inducted into the Atlanta Business Hall of Fame.

and astute decision-making capacities. The president of Citizens Trust, Jim Young, told Powell that Funderburg “was highly regarded as a consummate banker with an innate ability to assess risk.” Part of Funderburg’s acumen was to maintain a banker’s traditional wariness about lending. He was fond of noting that a bank’s mission was, in the end, to be profitable. This was an especially trying challenge for a black bank, for African-American-owned financial institutions traditionally had a lower rate of deposits, reflecting community income. The ratio of loans to deposits is an important factor in assessing a bank’s financial health, Funderburg told Atlanta Business Chronicle’s David Rubinger. Funderburg went on to stress his bank’s commitment to solvency. “We may be a commercial bank, but we are a totally different type of commercial bank. We continue to be careful about our lending, and we have never altered our lending standards.”

Funderburg was also highly regarded for the advice he gave to other black-owned banks in the Southeast. “The basic economic fact is that when people determine where they will do their banking, they look for service and convenience,” Funderburg told Mississippi Business Journal writer Kevin Jones. “If people prefer doing business with you, they will. When black banks fail, it’s because they weren’t well-managed. If they are well-managed, then no matter what the color, they will survive.”

In the late 1980s Funderburg became involved in Atlanta’s Minority Economic Independence Campaign, a bid by African-American church leaders in the city to remind blacks that statistically they were more equitably served by institutions like Citizens Trust and other banks and savings-and-loans than they were by white institutions. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Bill Dedman had reported “that banks and savings and loans rarely made home loans in black or integrated neighborhoods, and made banking services less accessible to blacks.” In response to charges that his own bank would be a primary beneficiary if Atlanta blacks began to re-deposit their funds after closing accounts with much larger white-owned institutions, Funderburg dismissed the suggestion of a boycott. He told Dedman, “What we’re trying to do is to promote Citizens Trust Bank and to take advantage of the fact … that we have been an active player in that community for all of our existence.”

Funderburg retired from his long career in banking in 1992, a year when Citizens Trust boasted assets of $115 million. He owned a 23-acre farm near Atlanta, where he bred quarter horses and cooked for friends from his Morehouse days. He died of cancer in January of 2002, survived by his wife, Clara Comeaux Funderburg, three sons, three stepsons, and six grandchildren. At the time of his death, Citizens Trust had assets of $295 million, and was the largest commercial bank in African-American hands in the Southeast. It remained the third-largest black-owned bank in the United States.