Herbert Victor Prochnow (May 19, 1897 – September 29, 1998) was a U.S. banking executive, noted toastmaster, and writer during the middle 20th century. As Vice President of the First National Bank of Chicago, Prochnow wrote several popular books on public speaking. He also wrote epigrams and anecdotes that appeared in ''The Saturday Evening Post'' and ''Reader's Digest''. In the 1930s, he rose in the foreign—later international—department at First National Bank. In the mid-1940s, Prochnow was a member of the Office of Strategic Services, recruiting and training American spies for an organization viewed as a predecessor of the CIA. A decade later, U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles asked Prochnow to come to Washington to serve as deputy undersecretary of state for economic affairs, a position he held for two years. He also served as secretary of the Federal Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve System for more than 40 years.
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