Lake Forest’s Bill Bacon passes away at 88; remembered for investment savvy, leadership

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William T. Bacon

Updated: February 20, 2012 9:00AM

A strong leader and distinguished investment banker, Lake Forest’s William Thompson Bacon Jr. died Dec. 31, 2011 at the age of 88.

Born in Evanston in 1923, Bacon attended North Shore Country Day School, graduated from Phillips Academy in 1941 and Yale University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 1945.

Bacon married Margaret Lillias Hoyt of Winnetka in 1942 and spent 56 years together raising five children and enjoying family times at homes in Lake Forest, Wisconsin, Florida and Vail, Colo. Margaret died in 1998.

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Bacon worked for 10 years at First National Bank of Chicago, later joining the investment banking firm his father co-founded, Bacon, Whipple & Co. in Chicago.

Bacon worked with his father until the firm was sold in 1983.

Throughout the years, the Bacons and Whipples were “like family,” Jay Whipple Jr. of Lake Forest said.

“My father and (Bill’s) father started the firm in 1926. Bill joined the firm a few years before I joined in 1959,” Whipple said. “I always knew Bill.”

Bacon had a good business and investment sense that made him “one of the most successful investment bankers in the country” in the early 1970s, Whipple said.

“He was a very strong personality and had a lot of leadership talent” that he brought to his private and business life, Whipple said.

Aside from their business partnership, the two spent off-work time together. One of Whipple’s fondest memories happened on the golf course.

‘Great golfer’

“Bill and I were a team in the 1960s and won a golf competition at Old Elm,” Whipple recalled. “He was a great golfer.”

Chris Bacon, the youngest of Bill’s five children, speaks fondly of his dad’s strong personality and lessons he learned from his father. He said in addition to golfing, his father enjoyed fishing, doing crossword puzzles, hunting, skiing, tennis and hockey.

“Growing up, Dad taught me to drive the tractor and cut the field…snow plow the long driveway…and how to pound nails to fix up the broken country fence,” Chris Bacon recalled.

Chris noted his father was the kind of man who multi-tasked, even while vacationing.

He “loved to drive the pontoon around White Sand Lake, inspecting the shoreline, taking pictures of the water skiers and fishing for perch with the grandchildren, all at the same time,” Chris said.

In addition to his family and work pursuits, Bacon served on many corporate boards of directors and served as president for several years of the U.S. Seniors Golf Association. He traveled the world to play golf.

In addition to his son, Chris, Bacon is survived by his brother, Carter; his sister Martha; four other children, William Bacon III, Catherine Von Stroh, Hoyt Bacon and Knight Bacon; eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Services have been held. Contributions in memory of William T. Bacon Jr. can be made to USSGA Memorial Fund, 49 Knollwood Rd., Elmsford, N.Y. 10523.