John Horn Cunningham

How unfortunate that

John Cunningham died just a few hours short of his 99th birthday which would have

been celebrated on 1 January 1966. Several years before, President John F. Kennedy

sent him a telegram saying, “Congratulations on being named by your friends and

associates in Westminster and Carroll County as America’s Oldest Banker in Years of

Continuous Service.‟ Your 77 years’ record as a banker is certainly an impressive one

and you deserve all the honors which have been given you….”

John’s long life may have been due in part to the exercise he always got. Even in old age he

walked a mile from his home to his bank each workday and farther on weekends. In 1898, he

bicycled 200 miles from Westminster to Atlantic City, N.J., in one day.

John began his Westminster banking career with the Farmers and Mechanics National

Bank where his father served as a clerk. That bank eventually became the Union National

Bank, and Cunningham became its Chairman of the Board in 1948.

Each Tuesday night he and good friends played poker for four hours, but a lifetime of

biking and walking justified a few hours around the poker table or six hours behind his

desk. When interviewed at 97 years of age he explained to a reporter, “I only walk half

as far and about half as fast as I used to. It’s a strain to walk more than 4 or 5 miles.”