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Edward F. McGinley III, 91, investment banker and Navy veteran

Mr. McGinley and his two brothers were standout football players at Westfield High School. All three were inducted into the Westfield, N.J. Hall of Fame in 2012.

Edward F. McGinley III
Edward F. McGinley IIIRead moreCourtesy of Kate McGinley

Edward F. McGinley III, 91, of Villanova, a retired vice president of Goldman Sachs and a Navy veteran of World War II, died Sunday, Nov. 11, of congestive heart failure at his home.

The eldest of three brothers, Mr. McGinley was born to Helen Hayes and Edward F. McGinley Jr. in Westfield, N.J. He distinguished himself as an All-County tackle on the 1947 Westfield High School football team in Union County that went undefeated in the state. His brother Gerald H. McGinley was team captain.

His brother Richard was also a football standout, and all three were inducted into the Westfield Hall of Fame in 2012 by the Westfield Historical Society, the family said.

Mr. McGinley skipped his high school final examinations to enlist in the U.S. Navy as a seaman during World War II, although later he earned a GED. After an honorable discharge, he went on to play football at the University of Pennsylvania under the legendary coach George Munger. He enjoyed being a "Munger man," a devotee of the coach, his family said.

In 1950, he graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from the Wharton School of Business. While in college, he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, the Mask and Whig Club, and the Friars Society.  Later, he and his brother Gerald established the Edward F. McGinley Jr. Scholarship Fund at Penn, which paid the tuition of promising student football players, in honor of their father.

Mr. McGinley had a long career in business, starting with a training program at the brokerage Marsh & McLennan in New York. He worked at Merrill Lynch and then Bache & Co. before cofounding Carroll McEntee & McGinley, a dealer in government bonds.

After the firm was sold to Marine Midland Bank in 1983, Mr. McGinley joined Speer Leeds & Kellogg, where he helped build the fixed-income business. Speer Leeds was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2000. Mr. McGinley retired from Goldman Sachs as a vice president in 2009 at age 82.

Joseph N. DiStefano, business columnist at the Inquirer, said Mr. McGinley helped him understand the vagaries of investment banking for more than 20 years.

"Ed had a deep sense of justice," DiStefano said. "He took it upon himself to explain to me what was really going on in bank mergers and other deals where he felt employees and small shareholders were being shafted. He was fearless in asking the big questions of owners and bosses and seeing through their fog and smoke. And he had a terrific network of people he learned from and supported."

Mr. McGinley was a lifetime lover of jazz. He loved to sing as well. He and his wife, Kate, attended concerts and made friends with many musicians, the family said. Mr. McGinley and his brother Gerald established the Helen Hayes McGinley Scholarship Fund at the University of Pennsylvania for female music students. Gerald McGinley died in 2015.

Another hobby of Mr. McGinley's was planting trees, and he planted dozens of them, copper beeches, horse chestnuts, red leaf plums, and apple trees at the Carriage House at Camp Woods, a historic estate in Villanova. "The Carriage House at Camp Woods was his arboretum and sanctuary through his adult life," his family said.

He also planted a copper beech at the Bryn Mawr Train Station. He saw it every weekday when he commuted by rail to New York.

He was on the board of directors for the National Football Foundation, the National College Football Hall of Fame, the Cancer Research Foundation of America, and the Bond Club of Philadelphia.  He was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, a group that his family said inspired and strengthened him for 32 years.

In addition to his wife, Kate, he is survived by children Nancy McGinley Gardner, Edward F. McGinley IV, Douglas M. McGinley, and Kathleen McGinley Whiteman; 13 grandchildren; a great-grandchild; and his brother Richard.

Services will be private.