Wayne D. Angell

Wayne D. Angell was sworn in as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on February 7, 1986. He retired from the position on February 2, 1994.

Angell was born in Liberal, Kansas. He received a bachelor’s degree from Ottawa University (Kansas) in 1952. Angell went on to earn a master’s degree in 1953 and a doctorate in economics 1957 from the University of Kansas. He was a professor and later chair of economics at Ottawa University from 1956 to 1985.¹ While at Ottawa University, Angell served in the Kansas House of Representatives from 1960 to 1966. Angell also served as an officer and director of several banks in Kansas and Missouri between 1971 and 1985.

He began his work in the Federal Reserve System in 1972 by serving on a committee that advised Board of Governors staff on bank holding company legislation and regulation. In 1979, Angell joined the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. In February 1986, President Ronald Reagan nominated Angell to fill Lyle Gramley's unexpired term² on the Board of Governors.³ Angell served as chair of the Board’s Committee on Federal Reserve Bank Activities as well as chair of the G-10 Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems in Basel, Switzerland. During his time at the Board, Angell delivered a series of noteworthy speeches, including "A Proposal to Rely on Market Interest Rates on Intraday Funds to Reduce Payment System Risk," "The Evolution of the Payments System," and "Cooperative Approaches to Reducing Risks in Global Financial Markets." He was an advocate for agriculture and community banks and opposed the liberalization of interstate branch banking in the 1990s.⁴

Upon his retirement from the Board of Governors, Angell joined Bear Stearns & Co., Inc. as chief economist.⁵