OBITUARIES / PASSINGS / Edgar F. Callahan

Edgar F. Callahan, 80, former chairman of the National Credit Union Administration, who was credited with rescuing the credit union industry by guiding it through a period of deregulation, died March 18 of a blood disorder at his home in Sacramento.

A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Callahan earned his bachelor’s in mathematics and master’s in educational administration at Marquette University.

He spent much of his life in Illinois, where he taught high school, coached sports and served as principal and then superintendent of the Catholic schools in Rockford, Ill. He went on to work for the Illinois state government as director of financial institutions, supervising 2,000 consumer finance companies, 1,200 currency exchanges and more than 1,000 state-chartered credit unions.

In the early 1980s, President Reagan appointed him chairman of the National Credit Union Administration. As the highest-ranking credit union administrator in the country, he moved to deregulate saving and loan rates. He also allowed a credit union to serve multiple groups as long as they could prove a common bond. He opened a consulting firm after leaving office in 1985. He last served as president and chief executive of Patelco Credit Union in San Francisco.