Thomas King, Guerneville banker and real estate broker, dies at 82

Retired banker Thomas Nelson King, a Guerneville native who drew his surname from one of the lower Russian River region’s most prominent and deeply rooted families, died Sept. 14.

King, who worked for both the former Bank of Sonoma County and WestAmerica Bank, and who declined an offer to become CEO of what would become the disgraced and internally looted Centennial Savings and Loan, was 82.

Among his ancestors were a grandfather and three great-uncles who came to Sonoma County from Ontario, Canada, in 1875.

One great-uncle, also named Thomas King, co-owned the King-Starret Mill in Monte Rio, one of the county’s largest 19th century redwood mills. A second, William King, ran the 2,000-acre King Ranch on Cazadero’s King Ridge Road and served on the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors.

Thomas Nelson King was fresh from college when the Bank of Sonoma County hired him as a teller in its Guerneville Branch in 1958. He ascended rapidly to branch manager and, upon the bank’s merger with WestAmerica in the early 1970s, was made a vice president in charge of the Sebastopol branch.

His son, Thomas G. “Greg” King of Arcata, said that in 1980 “a group of well-heeled businessmen” invited him to become chief executive of a savings-and-loan they were about to launch.

Fortunately, Greg King said, his dad passed on the offer. “By 1990,” recalled the son in Humboldt County, “Centennial Savings and Loan had become a poster child for nearly 500 illegitimate thrifts that, under the Reagan Administration’s deregulation schemes, robbed millions of depositors of their savings before going belly-up.”

Greg King added, “Several Centennial officers and directors were indicted for fraud and drug money laundering, including Russian River locals. Tom was not among them.”

Thomas Nelson King was born in Monte Rio on April 13, 1934, to Thomas William King and Evelyn Nelson King.

Said son Greg King, “In 1935, Tom, in his mother’s arms, rode the last train from Guerneville to Santa Rosa - a train his father, who was born in Monte Rio in 1903, rode to attend school at Santa Rosa High. When he was 4, Tom and his family moved to Guerneville.”

King attended river-area schools and graduated from Sebastopol’s Analy High. He served two years in the Army, then used the G.I. Bill to study at San Jose State College, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1958.

It was at San Jose that he met and fell in love with Jessie Caster. They married in July of 1958, settled in Guerneville and started a family. They’d been married for 32 years when Jessie King, a teacher at Guerneville Elementary School, died in 1990.

Tom King worked about 20 years in banking and left the field, his son said, upon becoming disillusioned with “the crassness and dishonesty that accompanied the era’s infusion of wealth into Sonoma County, especially in the financial sectors.”

In the early 1980s, following his decision not to join up with the future felons who founded Centennial Savings and Loan, he opened Tom King Realty in Guerneville. He later purchased the river town’s Fleming Insurance.

He retired at a young age - 57. Then he traveled with friend Gail Culverwell and exercised his love of cooking, dining out and cheering the San Francisco Giants and 49ers.

King also was for many years an avid runner, competing in the Bay to Breakers, Hawaii’s Pineapple Run and other runs. He “loved the ocean, enjoyed hiking and had a deep appreciation for the outdoors.”

In addition to his son in Arcata, King is survived by daughters Laura Mattos of Petaluma and Anna King Heidinger of San Rafael, sister Barbara Hoffmann of Guerneville and five grandchildren.

A celebration of his life will be held at 11 a.m. on Oct. 6 at the Community Church in Guerneville.

His family suggests memorial contributions to Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods, stewardscr.org or P.O. Box 2, Duncans Mills 95430.