Victor Banks, 88, died at his home in Oak Park on Feb. 6, 2016. Born on Aug. 22, 1927, he started his career as a bricklayer’s apprentice at a desperately-needed penicillin factory during the V1 bombings in London and eventually emigrated to Chicago to work on some of the city’s iconic buildings.
Wartime efforts encouraged parents to get their children out of harm’s way and at the age of 12, he and other students were evacuated to the coastal resort town of Exmouth in the south of England. Mr. and Mrs. Sandcraft chose him from the crowd of children because the headmaster said he was a star student and could tutor their son, Archie, with his schoolwork. The first night he slept in the bed he shared with Archie, a rogue bomb was dropped near the Sandcraft house. He and the Sandcrafts remained in contact for many years after the war and he visited them occasionally, often describing this period as one of the happiest times of his life. By August of 1940, he had to leave Exmouth and return to his home in London. By then the bombings had devastated his native town of Penge.
Soon after returning home, his father found him employment cleaning up debris from explosions, and patching damaged buildings. The experience gave him a window into the widespread destruction and the power of the V1s. He enlisted in the Royal Navy in 1945 and it was during this time that a friend introduced him to classical music. Consequently, he enjoyed a lifetime appreciation of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms.
With the war over, the rebuilding of London was in high gear and after leaving the Navy, he returned to Penge to continue working as a bricklayer. At the same time, he also invested in dance lessons and that, plus his Matchless motorcycle, attracted Paula Zyto, a Holocaust survivor from Poland with her own extraordinary story. The couple soon fell in love and, in 1952, they married. Having heard that bricklaying jobs paid better in Toronto, they obtained visas and booked passage on the RMS Georgic. They moved to Chicago a year later.
They arrived by Greyhound bus and he landed a job his first day in America working on apartment buildings in Maywood. They rented a basement flat on Washington Boulevard. In 1962, now the father of five young children, he and his wife bought their own brick bungalow in the Austin neighborhood known as The Island, where they lived for almost 50 years, during which he contributed to such great Chicago landmarks as the Hancock Tower, the Standard Oil building, the Sears Tower, and the Monadnock building, the tallest brick building ever constructed.
Perhaps his greatest passion in life was swimming. When his family was young he often took his wife and children for afternoons at the lakefront. Later in life, his summer home-away-from-home was the North Avenue bend at Lake Michigan near the chess pavilion. Having to end his education at the age of 13 to start his apprenticeship, he was known to his friends as something of a scholar. He studied and spoke French, Russian and German and had a philosophical and thoughtful way of looking at life. And while he loved art, literature and classical music, he understood the immigrant experience and enjoyed talking about his own past and humble beginnings. This remarkable combination of traits drew many people close to him and gave him a wisdom and sincerity that will be remembered and greatly missed by many.
Mr. Banks is survived by his children, Michael (Andrea), Judy (James) Patterson, Monica (Robert) Zinn, Ben (Asami Imai), and Victor Jr. (Linda Dare); and his grandchildren Eliana and Sarah, Louis and Oliver Patterson, Maya and Aaron Zinn, Everett, Liam, and Graeme; and his sister Joyce (the late John) Harrison. He was preceded in death by his son, David.
Services are still being planned. Arrangements are being handled by Drechsler, Brown & Williams Funeral Home in Oak Park.