Frank Jay MACKEY

Frank Mackey founded the financial services company Household Finance in 1878. The company still exists as of 2015, but later became known as HSBC. His father, Joe Mackey was a prominent attorney and banker and founded the Reedsburg Bank, the oldest bank in the city. After graduating from Beloit College, Frank also became an attorney and for a while worked as a cashier of the newly opened Reedsburg Bank. Having bigger ambitions, the young Mackey headed to California to make his fortune but returned broke and went to work back in the bank. After the family moved to Minneapolis, Mackey was involved in some shrewd financial investments at home, in Mexico and in England and he soon became a millionaire.

Frank Mackey became a wealthy man from Household Finance and this gave him time to indulge in his hobby of polo playing. He had a strong international career in polo, winning such tournaments as the Paris International Tournament, Bledisloe Warwickshire Cup, Cirencester Challenge, and County Cups in England. He donated many trophies for polo tournaments, especially in California and Paris.

Mackey died at the Leamington Hotel in Minneapolis, which he built in 1911 and was in its day, one of the finest hotels in America. Presidents like Ronald Reagan and Dwight D. Eisenhower stayed there, as did show business personalities Duke Ellington and The Beatles. The hotel was named after the Warwickshire town in England where Mackey spent his summer months for many years. It was said of him that he “lived a charmed life” but when he became terminally ill, he lost that charm by taking his own life. Before his suicide, he had bequeathed his entire fortune to his last wife Olga, nearly 40 years younger than him. Upon re-marrying she gave birth to her first child, Spanish bob pilot Fons de Portago, who took part in the Winter Games in 1956 and in Formula 1 races as well.