Downey S&L; Tight-Lipped on Shake-Up : Finance: F. Anthony Kurtz, president and chief operating officer, abruptly leaves. He was hired in 1991 as part of a long-range succession plan.

In an unexpected shake-up, Downey Savings & Loan Assn. Friday said its president and chief operating officer, F. Anthony Kurtz, has “departed” after just two years in the $3.5-billion thrift’s top operating spot.

No other explanation was offered, and Downey did not issue its statement--briefly mentioned at the end of another announcement--until minutes before the thrift closed for the long holiday weekend and after its top managers had left.

Robert L. Kemper, 64, Downey’s chief executive officer, was selected as acting president.

Kurtz, 52, joined Downey in 1991 as president and chief operating officer after the thrift’s co-founders, Maurice L. McAlister and Gerald H. McQuarrie, retired from their posts.

McAlister, who remained as chairman, took on the position of president of Downey’s real estate subsidiary, DSL Service Co. His retirement from that presidency was announced by Downey on Friday and it was at the end of that prepared statement that Kurtz’s abrupt departure was disclosed.

Brent McQuarrie, Downey’s vice chairman, declined comment when reached at his residence in Provo, Utah.

McAlister, 67, will continue to serve as chairman of the board of directors of both Downey and DSL Service Co. Unlike Kurtz, his retirement, which was effective July 1, had been expected.

McAlister had taken on the presidency of the service company expressly to guide it through the dismantling of Downey’s real estate empire--a task that recently was completed.

McAlister and McQuarrie, who died last year at age 70, founded the savings and loan in 1957 in Downey and moved it to Orange County in 1977.

Although profitable for most of its history, Downey ran into a regulatory wall soon after the federal Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 was implemented and federal regulators began forcing thrifts to devalue their real estate investments.

The thrift remains profitable, however, and there have been no signs of financial or regulatory difficulties that would have foretold Kurtz’s apparent spur-of-the-moment decision to leave.

Kurtz was hired as part of a long-range succession plan. He was 50 when he joined Downey in September, 1991, as president, and officials made reference to his relative youth--McAlister was 65 then and Kemper was 62--as a sign of their intent to ensure that Downey would profit from a long, unbroken line of leadership.

Downey had built its successes by combining a strong consumer branch network--the thrift has 52 offices--with an aggressive policy of developing, owning and managing shopping centers and other commercial real estate projects.

Although those properties provided Downey a healthy stream of income from rents and leases, the 1989 federal law required the thrift to sell most of the properties.

That mandate was met last month, and on June 29 Downey said it has cut its direct investment in real estate to $67 million, just under 2% of its assets. The law requires thrifts to have no more than 2% of their assets tied up in real estate ownership after mid-1994.

McAlister said in Friday’s statement that Downey, with $3.5 billion in assets, exceeds the federal requirement for thrifts’ capitalization--the investors’ equity and retained earnings used as a final cushion against losses.

Dan Rosenthal, a senior vice president of DSL Service, was appointed acting president of the real estate subsidiary, which continues to oversee a portfolio that includes 32 shopping centers.