Kenneth G. Walker, Founding Family Member and Third Generation CEO of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, Has Died at 97

Harnessing the Power of Global Economic Expansion and New Technology, Kenneth Walker Guided F&M Bank Into the 21^st Century

Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach (“F&M” or the “Bank”) (OTCQX: FMBL) today announced Kenneth G. Walker, 97, longtime Long Beach banker, died January 19 at his home in Buena Park, Calif. Taking the helm of F&M Bank in 1979, Ken Walker would meld F&M’s foundational elements of honesty and integrity with a unique vision all his own. A celebrated athlete and former Navy Officer, Walker led F&M through continued growth in Southern California. Harnessing the power of global economic expansion and new technologies, he guided F&M across the threshold of the 21st century and into the capable arms of his two sons, Daniel and Henry, and his grandchildren, Christine and Nolan. When interviewed in 2008 about seeing his sons rise to executive level roles in the Bank, Walker said, “F&M has long been a Walker family tradition, and seeing my children and grandchildren rise to the helm of these organizations, bringing with them a new level of business expertise, is fulfilling on many levels for me. This is more than just a business for our family, it is part of our family culture, and we take its success personally.”

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Kenneth G. Walker, founding family member of Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach. (Photo: Business Wire)

Ken Walker was born in Long Beach on April 17, 1927 at Seaside Hospital, now Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. He attended Los Cerritos Elementary School, Washington Jr. High, and Poly High School. At Poly High he was a class officer, a three-year letterman, and captain of the gymnastics team. Ken’s work ethic started early. At the request of his grandfather and F&M Bank founder, C. J. Walker, Ken began working at F&M at age eleven as the elevator operator and groundskeeper of the Long Beach headquarters on 3rd Street and Pine Avenue. He was also responsible for maintaining the grounds of vacant parcels of land that later would become home to new F&M Bank offices. This work ethic carried Ken for many years and after he graduated from Poly in the spring of 1944, he immediately joined the U.S. Navy, serving as a seaman on a motor launch, shuttling personnel around the Long Beach Harbor and working at the Bank in his off hours.

Walker followed in his father’s footsteps in 1946, studying economics and finance at the University of Southern California. Following his military service, Ken married and returned to work at F&M as a teller in 1948, moonlighting as a machine shop operator after hours and a farmer in Arizona on the weekends. In the ensuing years, he worked in almost every conceivable banking capacity at F&M until becoming its executive vice president in 1965. He succeeded his father, Gus Walker, as president in 1979, and remained involved in various key aspects of the business, including oversight of investments, loans, and personnel matters until recent years.

Occupying C.J.’s roll-top desk on the main banking floor in order to maintain relationships with his customers, Ken Walker’s tenure as president of F&M Bank during the 1980s was characterized by great expansion. He opened new offices in Orange, Lake Forest, Fullerton, Rossmoor, San Juan Capistrano, and Santa Ana. Ken’s consistently conservative policies during this time earned F&M Bank the designation of the safest of 441 similar institutions in California by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in 1985, policies and capital ratios that endure to this day.

Fortunate for all, growing the family business afforded Ken the opportunity to continue his grandfather C.J.’s legacy of philanthropy, by identifying and developing “legacy assets” to serve the community in perpetuity. Ken helped develop Long Beach Memorial Medical Center (LBMMC), loaning the hospital $4 million to buy the land upon which the current medical campus now resides. He remained involved with LBMMC for decades, serving on the board of trustees and finance committee, and opening an F&M Bank branch on the campus in 1980 to serve the hospital’s then 4,500 employees. Similarly, after 63 years of long-term preservation by the Walker family, Ken facilitated the transfer of the historic Modjeska house and surrounding wooded area to the County of Orange in 1986 for the purpose of establishing an historic park for public enjoyment. The stories of Ken Walker’s generosity to the community are too numerous to count.

On September 5, 1948, Ken Walker married Nancy MacMillan. The two met when they were co-eds at USC and were married for 60 years until Nancy’s death in October of 2008. Devout Christians, Ken and Nancy were members of the First Evangelical Free Church in Fullerton for many years and played a key role in preserving Reverend Robert H. Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral (renamed Christ Cathedral in 2019), one of the largest and most distinctive churches in the U.S. Most recently in January 2025, Ken and Nancy received special recognition for dedicating the Dr. Robert & Arvella Schuller Chapel in the Sky as an ecumenical dwelling place on the Christ Cathedral campus. They also were instrumental in the rebirth of the Christian movement throughout the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), directing the Bank to forgive nearly $500,000 in debt owed by the Long Beach YMCA in the 1980s, and were among the first recipients of the YMCA Harold C. Smith Christian Emphasis Award. Ken and Nancy established the C. J., Carrie D. & R. Howard Walker Foundation to support the YMCA of Long Beach, following the death of their son Howard in 1973.

An avid athlete and adventurer, Ken began playing polo with his father and older brother as a teenager, starting at Garden Grove (Valencia Polo Club), and later at the Riviera Polo Club and Will Rogers. In 1953, Ken began playing at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club in Carpinteria, where he would occasionally ferry his family up the coast from Long Beach in his 83-foot AVR boat. He moored his boat off Santa Claus Lane and rowed his wife, Nancy, and their two young sons, John and Howard, to shore to play polo. Ken and his family started to breed all their own polo ponies, giving them more horses to play the game for the winning all-Walker polo team. In 1963, Ken bought the nearly 250,000 acre Dodge Ranch in Lassen County where the Walkers replaced polo with gathering cattle, along with farming operations in Susanville and in Leemor. Ken organized a multifaceted holding company in 1972 called Queen City Investments, where he served as CEO. This entity would go on to own Farmers and Merchants Trust Company, a 50,000 acre cattle ranch named Huasna located in Arroyo Grande, and various other assets. In 1976, Ken, along with the assistance of two other club members, rescued the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club from financial disaster by finishing a failed condo development and purchasing parcels of contiguous land for stabling and a tennis club. By 1979, the Walker family deeded all land and all improvements back to the Club at no benefit to themselves. Today, the club is heralded as one of the most viable polo clubs in the western United States.

Ken Walker is reunited in heaven today with his wife Nancy MacMillan Walker, his father Gustavus A. Walker, his mother Cassieta S. Walker, his brother Richard A. Walker, his twin brothers David Walker and Donald P. Walker, his sister Mrs. Beverly J. McLaughlin, and his two sons R. Howard Walker and Thomas Walker.

Ken Walker is survived by his sons, John and his wife, Kelli of Aliso Viejo; Daniel and his wife, Linda of Orange; daughter, Anne Nicholson and her husband, Randy of Fullerton; and son, Henry and his wife, Erin of Long Beach; 11 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.

The Walker family would like to express their deepest gratitude to Ken’s caregivers – Kristin, Natashya, and Irene – for the compassionate and dedicated care they provided to Ken during the final years of his life.

Services will be held in February with more details to follow.

Memorial contributions in lieu of flowers can be made to the C.J., Carrie D. & R. Howard Walker Foundation, 302 Pine Avenue, Long Beach, California 90802.

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