CROCKER NATIONAL BANK

'Crocker National Bank' was a United States bank headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was acquired by and merged into Wells Fargo Bank in 1986.

Contents

History

Trivia

History

The bank traces its history to the Woolworth National Bank in San Francisco. Charles Crocker, one of The Big Four of the Central Pacific Railroad and who constructed America's First Transcontinental Railroad, acquired controlling interest in Woolworth for his son William Crocker. The bank was renamed Crocker Woolworth National Bank, later Crocker First National Bank and finally Crocker National Bank.
On April 21, 1975, Emily Harris, along with other members of the Symbionese Liberation Army robbed the Carmichael, California branch of the Crocker Bank of $15,000. Harris fatally shot civilian Myrna Opsahl for responding too slowly to Harris' demand for everybody in the building to lie down on the ground.
Crocker National Bank was purchased by the British financial organisation Midland Bank in 1981 but after a series of financial losses it was sold on to Wells Fargo Bank in 1986. Crocker's president and over eighty vice presidents left the bank after the merger.

Trivia

★ In the 1970's Crocker ran a television commercial featuring the song We've Only Just Begun which was later rerecorded by The Carpenters. The ad showed a young married couple moving into their first house, financed by a mortgage from Crocker.

★ Scott Adams worked at Crocker during his first years in the business world. It is said to have inspired the evil Bank of Ethel in Adams' Dilbert comic strip.