Irvine H. Sprague, 82; Headed FDIC Under Presidents Johnson, Carter

Irvine H. Sprague, who served as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under two presidents, died Tuesday of cancer at Arlington Hospice Center in Virginia, his brother, Tom, said. He was 82.

Sprague was nominated in 1969 by President Johnson to the board of the federal agency that supervises banks and insures deposits. He left the post in 1972 and worked for then-House Speaker Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. (D-Mass.). President Carter nominated him to return to the FDIC in 1979. He served as chairman from 1979 to 1981 and remained on the board through 1985.

He wrote “Bailout,” a book about his work in handling 374 bank failures.

Donald Powell, the FDIC chairman, said Sprague’s life “was devoted to service to our country,” and noted that he headed the FDIC at a difficult time for the banking industry.

Before joining the agency, Sprague served as Johnson’s chief liaison to Capitol Hill as a congressional aide and as a lobbyist for the state of California.

Sprague was born in San Francisco and graduated with degrees in economics and English from what was then College of the Pacific in Stockton. He began his career as a reporter with the Record of Stockton before entering Democratic Party politics. He went to Washington in 1957 as an aide to newly elected Rep. John McFall (D-Calif.).

He received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars in World War II and served on Gen. Douglas A. MacArthur’s staff in postwar Japan.

In addition to his brother, who lives in San Diego, Sprague is survived by his wife, Margery Craw Sprague, and daughter, Kristine Ann Woods of Silver Spring, Md.; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. Two sons preceded him in death.

He will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery on April 16.