John (Jack) Merritt Brennan

John (Jack) Merritt Brennan, 89 of Richmond Heights, Missouri, passed away on Thursday, October 10, 2024. John was born on August 27, 1935, in Gary, Indiana, to John A. and Mary L. Brennan. He was raised in Gary along with his two younger sisters, Ann and Betty. He graduated from Horace Mann High School in Gary in 1953. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 1957, John received an M.B.A. from Indiana University in 1960. While studying at IU, he also worked full-time as assistant director of the Business Placement Bureau. In 1961, John married Dorothy Howland (who grew up on the same street as John in Gary) and they settled in Evanston, Illinois. It was there they began raising their family of four children (Dave, Judy, Jim, and Dan). John began his banking career at the First National Bank of Chicago where, in ten years, he progressed from trainee to Vice President and head of the Mergers and Acquisitions Division. In 1970, John accepted a position with Boatmen’s National Bank and the family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. He worked at Boatmen’s for 26 years and rose to the position of Executive Vice President for Loan Administration. When the bank was acquired by NationsBank in 1996, John served as Senior Credit Policy Executive and Executive Vice President of NationsBank West, which included all the former Boatmen’s banks plus the NationsBank Texas locations. He retired from NationsBank in 1998, and then in 2001 moved to Washington, D.C., to join the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as Deputy to the Chairman, a position he served in for three years. In addition to his various roles in the banking industry, John served as treasurer of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and as a board member for a variety of organizations including Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, TIAA-CREF Trust Company, the Bi-State Chapter of the American Red Cross, Junior Achievement, and KETC Channel 9. He also served for ten years as a faculty member of the Graduate School of Banking at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. John and Dorothy were members of Old Warson Country Club in St. Louis and Club Pelican Bay in Naples, Florida. He loved playing golf, followed closely the fortunes of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team and St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and enthusiastically supporting his children and grandchildren in all their endeavors. John is survived by his wife Dorothy, four children, Dave Brennan, Judy Lenzini (Matt), Jim Brennan (Megan), and Dan Brennan (Shayne), seven grandchildren, Meredith Evans (Lenzini), Ben Lenzini, Molly Brennan, Maggie Brennan, Shea Brennan, Harper Brennan, and Finn Brennan, two great grandchildren, Olivia Evans and Theo Evans, his sisters Mary Ann Brennan Zion and Elisabeth Brennan May, as well as a number of nieces and nephews. He is predeceased by his parents John A. Brennan and Mary L. Merritt Brennan. Visitation will be from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., Thursday, October 17, 2024, at Bopp Chapel Funeral Home located at 10610 Manchester Road, Kirkwood, Missouri. Funeral Mass will be held at 10:00 a.m., Friday, October 18, 2024, at Immacolata Catholic Church located at 8900 Clayton Road, Richmond Heights, Missouri. The family asks that in lieu of sending flowers, donations can be made to Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital or the Missouri Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.

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John (Jack) Merritt Brennan

August 27, 1935 - October 10, 2024