Downey Savings Chief Abruptly Retires : Banking: Robert L. Kemper had planned to leave in June. He is credited with stabilizing the thrift.

Robert L. Kemper, who helped to stabilize and redirect Downey Savings & Loan, abruptly moved his retirement up three months and has left his positions as director and chief executive, the thrift said Monday.

Kemper was replaced by an interim team consisting of Donald E. Royer, the thrift’s general counsel, and Thomas E. Prince, its chief financial officer. A search has been underway for a permanent replacement since November when Kemper announced that he would retire June 30.

Downey said it hoped to find a replacement soon.

Kemper’s early departure caught employees off-guard. He appeared at a company awards banquet Thursday to congratulate employees and gave no indication of his imminent departure. His last day in the office was Friday.

Just two weeks ago, Kemper, 65, said in an interview that he planned to stay until his contract ran out at the end of June. He said then that he planned to return to the Santa Barbara area, where other family members live.

Kemper was brought on board in the fall of 1991 after regulators pressured Downey’s two co-founders into turning over operating control to a new group of leaders. Downey was considered a well-run thrift, but its management structure was outdated and its relations with regulators was tense. Kemper, a former Wells Fargo vice chairman, was well-liked by thrift regulators and steadied the relationship.

He also reorganized top management, bringing in a number of new faces, and refocused the thrift toward generating more home loans.

Last July, Downey hired Lehman Bros., a New York investment banker, to study a “range of strategic alternatives”--including a sale of the thrift--for improving operations and bolstering shareholder value. But directors decided in November to take the thrift off the block and initiate plans to remain independent and instead boost its size.

Kemper, who said in November he would retire in mid-1994--helped to steer the thrift along its new course with an aggressive home loan campaign.

With 52 branches mainly in Southern California, consistent earnings and $3.5 billion in loans and other assets, Downey has been one of the industry’s more respected thrift operations.