Carl F. Hintze
Carl F. Hintze, 92, passed away Oct. 28, 2011, in Chandler, Ariz. When Carl found what he loved in life, he never wavered in his devotion. His greatest loves were his strong faith in God and Alice, his bride of 69 years.
Carl Frederick Joseph Hintze was born on May 11, 1919 in Rincon, N.M. His mother was from Mexico and his father from Germany, where the family was in banking. Carl's parents and their eight children lived in New Mexico before moving to the Phoenix area in 1930, where Carl later graduated from Phoenix Union High School.
Carl and Alice met in the seventh grade in Phoenix and were married April 27, 1942, at St. Mary's Catholic Church in downtown Phoenix. Shortly after their honeymoon at El Tovar Hotel at the Grand Canyon, Carl joined the Army, putting his career on hold.
Carl served his country in World War II as a machine gunner and German interpreter. He fought at the Battle of the Bulge, and was awarded a Silver Star in 1945 for holding off an attack by a German tank in Hatten, France, enabling 50 injured members of his company to evacuate.
As a youth, Carl sold “The Arizona Republic” on downtown Phoenix streets, so impressing a Valley National Bank executive that he urged Carl to look him up should he ever need a job. When World War II ended, Carl returned to Valley National Bank and began a long and successful career, retiring as a senior vice president in 1982 after 43 years.
The twin worlds of family and business were intertwined so closely that Carl's young family appeared on the cover of the Valley National Bank magazine "Round-Up" in 1956. Standing in the living room of their home in Buckeye with Carl and Alice were children Carl Jr., Andrea, Cynthia, Janice and twins Barry and Craig. Still to come were two more children, Therese and Cristin. Over the years Carl and Alice's family grew to include 29 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.
Carl played a key role in helping to finance the growth of Arizona, especially rural Arizona with its ranches and farms, from the 1950s through the 1970s. A graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School at the University of Washington, Carl had a talent for working with people and numbers. Above all, he was a natural leader who inspired loyalty and a "can do" attitude among his employees. In turn, he was loyal to Valley National Bank and the communities – Tolleson, Buckeye and Casa Grande – in which he worked or headed up VNB banks. Among his assignments at VNB's Phoenix headquarters was overseeing the agriculture department and commercial loan department. A favorite memory of his family is Carl talking business with John Wayne over scotch in the employee's lounge of the VNB branch in Casa Grande.
