John Mingo

John Mingo

John passed away at home on November 8, 2022. He was born February 1, 1943 to John and Anna (Fertal) Mingo in Norristown Pennsylvania.

He grew up in West Conshohocken PA. In 1965 he graduated from Yale University with a B.A. in Economics and in 1970 a PH.D in Economics from Brown University. He taught Economics at University of Montana from 1969-1972. In 1972 he went to work at the Federal Reserve in Washington , DC. On loan from the Federal Reserve, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury he authored the Monetary Control Act of 1980. In the 80’s he was a partner at Golembe and Associates and reveled the merger and acquisitions when Golembe and Associates represented one client and Goldman Sachs another. In the 90’s he returned to the Federal Reserve as Senior Advisor to the Board of Governors, and then spent most of the remainder of his career with his own company Mingo & Co advising major financial institutions and the U.S. government. During the end of his tenure as Senior Advisor to the Board of Governors and via Mingo & Co he became recognized as the leading expert of regulation of risk management.

John was an avid fly fisherman. He fished all over America and the world. He has lectured many times, including at the Angler’ Club Of New York and Trout Unlimited chapter of Wash D.C. He wrote several articles for fly fishing magazines. He has written 3 books on fly fishing: Fly Fishing the Montana Spring Creeks: The Rainbows of Paradise – considered to be the spring creek fly fishing bible; Fly Fishing the Western Spring Creeks and Tail-Waters, and Introduction to Hybrid Nymphing Tactics. He also has spent time writing and teaching shooting defensive pistol accurately and at speed. He has even taught an Army Ranger battalion of 24 coming through Montana and participating in a competitive handgun event.

He wrote yet another definitive book, on handguns this time. Defensive Pistol – A Complete Introduction.

In ‘retirement’ (haha), in addition to his aforementioned books, he was the founder and managing principal of Baetis Audio. Chief designer of special servers (computers). Baetis Audio media servers have won annual Recommended Component awards at both Stereophile and The Absolute Sound from 2014 through 2020. The Baetis Reference server has won the coveted Golden Ear award from The Absolute Sound and an A+ rating for digital equipment from Stereophile.

When John set out on an endeavor he gave it his all. He was passionate about everything he did. His hobbies often became avocations, which in turn were often mistaken by others as mainline careers. This was a source of humor, and not a surprise for family and close friends who knew his work ethic to be special, and perhaps even borderline insane. These avocations included his primary love, the Fly-Fishing world. He once had help from his 2 pre-teen sons to collect flies on the menu for Montana trout, to study them in a modified aquarium, to in turn improve imitation fly patterns. His fly-fishing publications resulted from his hard core, no ‘cutting corners’- empirical research.

‘But wait there’s more’, he loved to explore in the uniquely special way he would explore various other aspects of our world. In addition to fly-fishing, media servers and competition shooting he explored astronomy, the wine world, skiing, music of all varieties, sports, etc. One year he was an assistant coach for his younger son’s youth soccer team, as the goalkeeper coach for another child. Of course, he did his due diligence in this capacity as well. One can only hope this child has profited from years of extensive counseling.

He will be remembered as a hero for advancing our understanding of the banking system and its impact on the economy and families around the country and the world. He will be remembered as a hero for advancing our understanding with his other intensely pursued endeavors. He will be remembered as a hero to the family for being a steadfast protector, a no-nonsense problem-solver when he was needed the most. With all the love in the world we will miss him so very much.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Suzanne Martin Mingo, his sons, John David and Daniel; grandchildren, Abigail, Sabrina and Alessandra. He will be missed by his dogs, Mandy and Samson. A celebration of life will take place at his home in the Shields Valley, Livingston, Montana on April 22, 2023. Arrangements are being handled by Franzen – Davis.

Published by The Washington Post on Nov. 16, 2022.