Thomas Lee Mcquaid, From Cowboy To Banker

Thomas Lee McQuaid, who helped bring drive-in banking to Seattle and OK'd initial funding to build the Space Needle, was a respected sage in the financial district. He also was a director of the United Way, Seattle Symphony and other community groups.

Yet he was born into a cowboying family in Tucumcari, N.M. and worked as a ranch hand in his youth. A love of animals never left him. He got great satisfaction tending his 7-acre Clyde Hill estate, complete with chickens, horses and cows.

"He loved cattle and horses and farming, although he never really had his own ranch," said his son Douglas McQuaid of Seattle.

Mr. McQuaid died of heart failure Wednesday (June 11). He was 92.

Although he attended the University of Southern California and the University of Colorado, finances forced him to leave school before earning a degree.

Returning to New Mexico, he got a job as a bank teller. In 1925 he moved to Seattle to work as a messenger for the Seattle office of the Bank of California. By the time he retired in 1965, he was a senior vice president and general manager.

In 1959 he persuaded building owners to build an underground Bank of California parking garage, offering free parking to clients, and to install "teller tubes" that offered curbside banking.

"He also was pretty insistent on the bank's approving the loans to get the Space Needle built, " his son said. "No one else wanted to fund the thing in 1961.

"They couldn't see where the money was going to be made from it. When he'd call the main office in California, they'd say, `You want money for a space WHAT?' He knew all the people involved here, decided he was going to do it and did it."

After retiring from the Bank of California, Mr. McQuaid served as vice president of Peter Pan Seafoods.

During his bank years, he earned the nickname, "The Judge," for quoting the legal aspects of trusts. He also was called as an expert witness in a case where people defaulted on loans.

"But he couldn't act as an expert witness because he had never had that happen," said his son. "He had never made a bad loan."

Other survivors include children Donna McQuaid of Bolinas, Calif., Michael McQuaid, Clyde Hill, and Thomas McQuaid Jr., Seattle; five grandchildren; and one great-grandchild. His wife of 52 years, Margaret McQuaid, died in 1988.

At his request no services will be held. Memorials may go to Community Services for the Blind and Partially Sighted, 9709 Third Ave. N.E., Suite 100, Seattle, WA, 98115.