Financier A.W. Clausen dies at 89

A.W. Clausen, an American banker who rose to the highest echelons of his field nationally and internationally, serving twice as president of Bank of America with a stint as head of the World Bank in between, died Jan. 22 at a hospital in Burlingame, Calif. He was 89. He had complications from pneumonia, said his wife, Helen Clausen.

Clausen, who was known as Tom, began his career more than six decades ago as a part-time cash counter toiling away in a Bank of America vault. He advanced through the management ranks of the bank and its parent company to become president and chief executive in 1970.

Over the next decade, he led the San Francisco-based Bank of America through a period of burgeoning growth and profit. By the time he left for the World Bank in 1981, the once largely regional institution had become an international powerhouse.