Harry M. Bardt, 97; Banker, Civic Leader

Harry M. Bardt, an investment executive known as “banker to the stars” and an indefatigable community leader who chaired Los Angeles County’s first United Crusade, died Friday. He was 97.

Bardt, who died in Los Angeles, was a former officer and long-term board member of the Bank of America and the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“Harry had a career of extraordinary service to Bank of America’s customers, communities and shareholders,” said David Coulter, Bank of America chairman. “He was a valued associate of our founder, A.P. Giannini.”

Dodger President Peter O’Malley, whose father, Walter, first named Bardt to the team’s board, said: “Harry was an invaluable member of our board of directors for 30 years. His good counsel was very much appreciated by my father and me.”

Well known as president of the Southern California Symphony-Hollywood Bowl Assn., Bardt was tapped in 1964 to head the county’s first United Crusade. The effort was staged by some 300 public service groups and 13 chapters of the area’s Red Cross, with more than 100,000 volunteers and a goal of raising $20.7 million. At that time, it was the largest fund-raising effort in the country.

Bardt’s efforts earned him the Big Brother Award from the Jewish Federation-Council’s Big Brothers Assn.

Trained as a lawyer, Bardt joined Bank of America in 1928 when it was still known as the Bank of Italy. As a trust officer, he earned the tag “banker to the stars” because he managed the estates of such celebrities as Irving Thalberg, Norma Shearer, Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford and David O. Selznick.

In the 1950s, Bardt chaired a group that launched BankAmericard, the forerunner of Visa and the nation’s first bank credit card. In 1957, he was named the bank’s senior administrative officer for Southern California. Both before and after retirement, he served on the board and was an advisor to the trust committee.

Nationally, he served as president of the Trust Division of the American Bankers Assn. In 1957, he received the Order of Leopold from the government of Belgium for his work in strengthening economic relations between that nation and the United States.

Bardt was well known in Southern California as a board member and chairman of several cultural, educational and charitable organizations. Among them were the Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles County Music Center Operating Co., the Hollywood Turf Club Associated Charities, the California Museum of Science and Technology and the Braille Institute of Los Angeles.

He also was on the boards of the University of San Francisco and Pitzer College, and served on the California Constitutional Revision Commission in the early 1960s.

Bardt is survived by his wife, Marguerite, to whom he was married for 65 years.