Jack King remembered for commitment to community banking

Kalispell native Albert John “Jack” King championed community banking during his long life and was a co-founder of both Valley Bank of Kalispell and what is now Three Rivers Bank of Montana.

King, who died Wednesday at the age of 90, was remembered by friends and family on Friday as a strong-willed man of integrity who believed in independent, community banking and its potential to improve the lives of customers.

“He liked treating people fairly and was a man of his word,” said John King, chairman and chief executive officer of Three Rivers Bank of Montana, and one of three children born to Jack and Almeda King.

“He really valued the betterment of all,” John King said.

Almeda King died in 2015 on Christmas Day. The couple’s children, who survive, are Karen Rosenberg, John King and A. J. King.

Mike Burr works now in Columbia Falls as a vice president for Whitefish Credit Union. But his banking career started in 1979 at First Security Bank of Kalispell. He said King was then chairman of the board. Burr stayed with the bank until 1997.

“Jack was just really passionate about his community and passionate about community banking,” Burr said. “He was a very good man, a very fair-minded man who cared a lot about Kalispell. Jack was instrumental in community banking in Montana.”

In 1962, Jack King and Jack Hensley became co-owners of the charter of the State Bank of Somers, which they ultimately moved to Kalispell. It became Valley Bank of Kalispell.

In 1974, Jack King and investors founded the First Security Bank of Kalispell, which changed its name in 1999 to Three Rivers Bank of Montana.

Hensley died in 2011.

King was a former president of the Montana Independent Bankers Association and former chairman of a national group known as the Independent Bankers Association of America.

“He did not like interstate banking,” said A. J. King, president of Three Rivers Bank of Montana.

He said his father believed big interstate banks take their profits out of the communities in which they locate branches.

“He was staunchly independent,” A. J. King said.

As a teenager, Jack King worked regionally during World War II as a fire lookout for the U.S, Forest Service, because men who might have otherwise staffed the towers were serving in the Armed Forces, said A. J. King.

Later, King worked as a laborer during construction of the Hungry Horse Dam. And he worked as a smoke-jumper during the summers of his college years.

He attended the University of Montana, where he played football, and graduated in 1950 with a degree in business.

Jack King and Ivan O’Neil of Kalispell were friends even before grade school. They graduated in 1946 from Flathead County High School and graduated together from the University of Montana.

O’Neil, 90, also served during high school as a regional fire tower lookout for the Forest Service. He was a member of the original board of directors for First Security Bank.

“Jack was a friend of everybody,” O’Neil said. “He had a lot of acquaintances.”

O’Neil agreed with John King’s observation about Jack King being strong-willed.

“If he wanted something, he went after it and got it,” he said.

One of the many things Jack King got started, in 1975, was the Highlander Track Club, which later became Highlander Track & Cross Country Club. Three Rivers Bank still sponsors the clubs and there is no charge to participate.

A. J. King said he’s heard from many parents who have expressed gratitude for the club because the parents could not afford to pay for their children to participate in other sports.

A funeral service for Jack King will be held Feb. 21 at noon at the First Presbyterian Church in Kalispell.

Reporter Duncan Adams may be reached at dadams@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4407.