John Banker - Private Investor
10401 Brighton Road and 9448 Lake Shore Boulevard
John H. Banker was born on June 26, 1928, in Navarre, Ohio. He was introduced to the stock market as a teenager by his father, a music teacher, who traveled the circuit of one-room country schools in Stark County giving singing lessons. He scrimped to buy a forty-acre farm. The Timken Company later bought the farm and that started the elder Banker in the securities business.
John H. Banker married Joan who was a successful real estate broker doing business as Banker Real Estate. During her career, she sold many homes in Bratenahl.
John and Joan had three children: Valerie (Burnette), Cynthia (Willkomm) and John D. All three children attended the Bratenahl School.
John inherited $200,000 in securities with the death of his father in 1952 and the death a year later of an uncle. He was the sole heir in each case.
John served as a private first class with the U. S. Army in Korea. When he was discharged in 1953, he started to manage full-time his late father’s portfolio. With investments in several companies, there were not many days without a dividend check arriving. He had what amounted to his own mutual fund.
John was a founding trustee of the Bratenahl School Plan Foundation which successfully funded the voluntary integration of the Bratenahl school.
John Banker died on March 25, 1997, after a brief illness and is buried in West Lawn Cemetery in Canton, Ohio.