Death of Krech

Alvin William Krech, 70, was for 20 years president, and since 1923 board chairman of the Equitable Trust Co., director of numerous other banking and railroad companies, banking colleague of Otto Hermann Kahn and Paul Drennan Cravath, holder of decorations from the French, Italian and Rumanian Governments for rehabilitation work after the War. Last week he died, of angina pectoris, suddenly at his Manhattan office, just two years to the day after he pried the first brick from the old Mills building on whose Broad Street site the Equitable's new 42-story building now stands.

The Equitable Trust Co. (as the Traders Deposit Co.) was founded in 1871 with $50,000 capital. Its total assets today are $586,000,000. It has seven branches--three in New York City, two in London, one in Mexico City and one in Paris. On Feb. 14 Chairman Krech and President Arthur William Loasby opened their new Manhattan building; on April 14 Chairman Krech opened their new Paris building.

He had an astute evaluation of workers' mentality, giving mechanics on the Equitable's new Manhattan building framed "Certificates of Superior Craftsmanship in recognition of the excellency of their work." Said he at the last certificate presentation in February: "It is a fine thing to be the first in any line, and you may well be proud of the engrossed certificates which may be handed down to later generations so long as paper and ink will hang together."

In the first category of bankers, he was also in the first category of art patrons, having been a director of both the Metropolitan Opera Company and of the New York Philharmonic Society, now merged with the Symphony Society of New York (TIME, April 2). Otto H. Kahn and Clarence Hungerford Mackay are likewise directors of both musical organizations.