Evening star., 1949-02-05
Burial Rites Planned
Tuesday in Arlington
|For Ord Preston

VI WV T1VS1Vu
Ord Preston, IA, former president
Of the Union Trust Co. here and
long a Washington business and
civic leader. will be buried in Ar
Ilington Cemetery at 1880 am. Tues
day.
Mr.. Preston died yesterday at his
home at La Jolla, Calf. He had
retired from the bank in 1916 be-
cause of illness and had lived on
the West Coast since then.
Mr.. Preston was a former presi-
dent Of the Washington Gas Light
Co. and past president of the Dis
trict Bankers Association. In 1945
he retired as president of the bank
and became chairman of the board
a post he gave up the following year
The son of the late Col. Albert
w. Preston, U.S.A., he was born in
st. Helena, Calf, on August Is
1874. Mr.. Preston graduated from
Yale in 1899, after attending Phil
lips Academy, Andover, Mass. He
gained his first financial experience
in Wall street, where he was con-
nected with a banking and broker
age firm. He worked in the coal
mines of the Darkwater Coal Co.,
near Pottstown, Pa, for a time.
Came Here in 1911.
Mr.. Preston came to the National
Capital in 1911 and became a direc-
tor of the Washington Gas Light Co
Through his grandfather, he had a
considerable interest in the COM
pany's stock. In 1928, he was elected
vice president and, year later,
was elevated to the presidency. He
resigned from the company in 1880.
When he became president Of the
bank, he had been on its board of
directors for many years, much of
the time as a member Of the Execu-
tive Committee. In the District
Bankers Association, he headed a
number of important committees. He
held various top ofiices in the asso-
citation and became president in
1898.
Mr.. Preston interested himself in
many civic enterprises. Among them
was service on the board of the In
structive Visiting Nurse Association,
st. Johns Orphanage and the Epis-
copal Eye, Ear and Throat Hospital.
He was a member of st. Johns Epis-
copal Church.
He served as treasurer of WASH
ington's g. Landon-Knox Campaign
Club in 1896 and of the Willkie-
McNary Campaign Club in 1940
Served in World War.
In World War I, Mr.. Preston
served as a major in the aeronauti-
cal branch of the Army Signal
Corps. He was a member of the
Chevy Chase, Metropolitan and Uni
versity Clubs, the Yale Alumni Asso-
citation and University Club of New
York.
Mr.. Preston had been married
three times. His third wife, Mrs.
Helen Coe Preston of La Jolla, the
37-year-old former bank teller
whom he married in October, 1916,
survives him. His first wife was
the former Miss Frances J. Con-
verse, whom he married in 1902 and
who died in 1911.
The following year, he married
his second wife, the former Miss
Carolyn Murray, member of a fam
lily long prominent In military
circles. She died on April 30, 1941.
She was the daughter of the late
Maj. Gen. Arthur Murray, chief of
Coast Artillery, and the sister of
Brig. Gen. Maxwell Murray and of
Mrs. Henry Conger Pratt, wife of
Maj. Gen. Pratt, who formerly COM
manded the 2nd. Army Corps.
Mr.. Preston had two daughters
by his first wife and two sons by
his second wife. They are Mrs.
Linton r. Massey of Keswick. Va;
Mrs. William L. Ritchie of "a Kali
Drama Circle NV, Arthur Murray
Preston of II West Thornapple
street, Chevy Chase, Md, an at
torney, and Ord Preston, jr., La
Jolla businessman.