Frank P. Smeal, former partner and head of the fixed-income division at Goldman, Sachs & Co., died April 8 at the age of 84 after a long illness.
Known as the dean of the municipal bond market, Mr. Smeal was held in high esteem in the municipal world in part because he was instrumental in advising New York City during its financial crisis in the 1970s, according to a statement from the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University.
Mr. Smeal was the first major banker to stop underwriting bonds of the New York State Urban Development Corp., the agency that went broke in early 1975. That year, he also advised New York City Mayor Abe Beame that the citys borrowing tactics could lead to trouble.
Mr. Smeal joined Goldman Sachs as a partner and member of the firms management committee in 1977 after 30 years at the Morgan Guaranty Trust Co., where he had been an executive vice president and treasurer.
Mr. Smeal served in the U.S. Army for four years after graduating from Pennsylvania State University with a degree in economics in 1942. He also served as chairman of the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonpartisan civic watchdog agency for New York City and New York State.
He was a past chairman of the Government and Federal Agencies Securities Committee of the Public Securities Association precursor to The Bond Market Association and former director of the American Reinsurance Co. He was also president of the Municipal Bond Club of New York and the Greater New York Councils of the Boy Scouts of America. He was treasurer of the United Chapters of Phi Beta Kappa and of the Phi Beta Kappa Foundation.
Along with his wife, Mary Jean, Mr. Smeal made a $10 million donation to the Smeal College of Business in 1990.
He earned his law degree from New York University and his MBA from Harvard Business School.
Mary Jean Smeal died in 1998. Mr. Smeal is survived by his son, Hank, of New York City, and daughter, Maggi, of Palo Alto, Calif.
Funeral services will be private.
