C. C. Hope Jr.; FDIC Board Member

C. C. Hope Jr., a board member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and a former banker and educator, has died of pneumonia. He was 73.

Hope’s death Monday in his hometown of Charlotte, N.C., creates the second vacancy on the five-member board of the agency, which insures the deposits of the nation’s banks and savings institutions up to $100,000 per account. FDIC Chairman William Taylor died in August.

A Democrat, Hope was appointed to the FDIC in 1986 by Ronald Reagan to fill the minority seat on what was then a three-member board.

Hope adopted a low-key approach and was known for humor and tact while the board labored to cope with a flood of failures that became the worst crisis of the banking system since the Great Depression.

Despite his former banking profession, he sided against the industry in May when the board voted 3 to 2 to raise the insurance premiums it charges banks in order to replenish its insurance fund.

President Clinton has not yet announced his Administration’s choices for the five FDIC board seats.