Banker & Local Polo Legend Passes

I also mark the passing of banker Ken Walker, one of the founding members of the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club, at his Buena Park home at the age of 97.

He took the helm of his family’s Farmers & Merchants Bank in Long Beach in 1979 having started at the age of 11 as an elevator operator.

A former U.S. Navy officer, his two sons, Daniel and Henry, are both Santa Barbara Polo Club patrons, and Henry is currently president.

Ken began playing polo as a teenager in 1953 and would occasionally ferry his family up the coast from Long Beach on his 83 foot boat and ferry them on shore for the matches.

In 1976 Ken, along with the late U.S. ambassador to Jamaica Glen Holden and the late Dr. Norman Ringer, rescued the Carpinteria club from financial disaster by completing a failed condominium development and purchasing parcels of contiguous land for stabling and a tennis club.

By 1979 the Walker family deeded all the land and all improvements back to the club at no benefit to themselves.

An enormous character….