Civic leader, prominent attorney Robert H. McKinney dies at 98

Robert H. McKinney

Robert H. McKinney’s name adorns the Indianapolis law school where he enrolled after World War II, and his presence has been felt throughout Indiana for more than 75 years, whether as an attorney, entrepreneur, banker, public servant, or civic leader.

McKinney died at the age of 98 on Sunday, surrounded by family at home in Walloon Lake, Michigan.

His influence in Indiana law and involvement in private and public endeavors has been expansive.

In 2011, McKinney, a name partner in the firm Bose McKinney & Evans, made a $24 million donation to Indiana University School of Law–Indianapolis, which is now named Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law.

Admitted to the Indiana bar in 1952, McKinney joined with three other Indianapolis lawyers in 1963  to form Bose McKinney & Evans.

In 1977, President Jimmy Carter—a Naval Academy classmate— nominated him as chairman of an independent federal regulatory agency, the Federal Home Loan Bank Board, along with the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation, and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

Born in Indianapolis on Nov. 7, 1925, to E. Kirk and Irene McKinney, McKinney graduated from Shortridge High School in 1943 and was sworn in as midshipman at the United States Naval Academy later that year.

After the war, McKinney enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis. Soon after enrolling, he was called back to active duty in the Korean War. Not wanting to delay or interrupt his legal studies, McKinney transferred to the Indiana University School of Law in Bloomington so that he could attend classes full-time and graduate early.

Returning to Indianapolis after the Korean War, he transitioned to the private practice of law with the Indianapolis law firm McHale, Patrick, Cook & Welch, which was renamed McHale, Cook, Welch & McKinney just five years after he joined. During the 1950s, he also assumed leadership roles in his family’s businesses, including First Federal Savings & Loan Association and Jefferson National Life Insurance Company.

In 1979, McKinney was re-elected chairman of First Federal Savings and Loan Association.

The following year, he announced plans to reorganize the depositor-owned institution as a shareholder-owned company, one of the first such conversions in the country.

In the midst of his time at the helm of the bank, McKinney again put his career on hold at the request of the U.S. State Department to move to Moscow for a 6-month assignment to advise the former Soviet Union in establishing a banking system.

In his 20-plus years as chairman and CEO of First Indiana Bank and First Indiana Corp., McKinney led the company through unprecedented growth, culminating in First Indiana’s conversion to a national bank in 2001. At the time of its sale to Marshall & Ilsley Corporation in 2008, First Indiana was Indianapolis’s largest locally owned community bank, with assets of $2.1 billion and 32 branches.

Long active in Democratic Party politics, McKinney ran unsuccessfully for the Indiana House in 1956.

He chaired the state’s leading fundraising dinner for John F. Kennedy during the 1960 presidential campaign and served as Indiana chairman for the presidential campaigns of Edmund Muskie, Walter F. Mondale, and Jimmy Carter. He was also outside legal counsel to Indiana Gov. Roger D. Branigin and chair of Indiana Governor Evan Bayh’s Government Reorganization Committee.

In 2011, McKinney set his focus on the IU Indianapolis Law School where he began his legal studies in 1952. The university renamed the school the Robert H. McKinney School of Law in honor of his transformational gift, which included funding for five endowed chairs and an endowment to fund the McKinney Family Scholarships. He served as a member of the school’s board of visitors and on the board of directors of the Indiana University Foundation. He also served the IU Center on Congress as an advisory board member.

In his later years, McKinney and his family turned their attention to environmental causes and support of the Naval Academy. In 2010, he and his five children established the McKinney Family Foundation, which is committed to building an environmentally sustainable future for every Hoosier through three focus areas: supporting a just transition to a clean energy economy, equitable climate change solutions, and empowering Indiana communities to live in a healthier, more prosperous, and more sustainable manner.

In addition, the family created a fund at the Central Indiana Community Foundation that helped launch the City of Indianapolis’s first Office of Sustainability under Mayor Bart Peterson, which paid for several of the city’s sustainability projects, including early bike lanes.