Darrell Richard Wells

Darrell Wells died peacefully, surrounded by his family, on 23 October 2026 in Louisville, aged 84. His death was announced in an obituary published by Ratterman Brothers Funeral Home, and was reported by Louisville Business First on 28 October. No cause of death was made public.

Visitation was held at Holy Trinity Church in Louisville on 26 October, and his funeral took place there the following morning, 27 October, followed by burial at Cave Hill Cemetery. The family said a celebration of life would be announced later and asked that, in lieu of flowers, gifts be made to the Darrell Wells Endowment at St. Xavier High School or the Baptist East Health Foundation.

Darrell Richard Wells was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 9 July 1942, the son of F. Lee Wells and Rita Brady Wells. He attended Holy Trinity grade school and earned a merit scholarship to St. Xavier High School, before going on to Harvard University, where he took a bachelor's degree in economics.

Back in Louisville he enrolled at the University of Louisville law school, but left after one semester to concentrate on trading stocks. As a member of the Air Force Reserves he was called up in 1965 and served in reconnaissance in Japan during the Vietnam War, which delayed the start of his business career until after his honourable discharge.

After his military service Wells moved to Chicago, where he and his friend and partner Ed Mason founded Midwest Investors, which his family described as the sixth hedge fund established in the United States. After his marriage in 1972 he returned to Louisville, and he and Mason founded Security Trend Partners. He entered banking through investments in the Bank of Magnolia and the Shelby County Trust Bank, and launched the Shelby Fund and its family of funds.

In 1992 he was awarded the first bank charter issued in Jefferson County in 75 years and used it to create Commonwealth Bank & Trust. Louisville Business First reported that he co-founded the bank and served as chief executive of its holding company; Churchill Downs later listed him as its co-founder and vice chairman. Commonwealth Bank & Trust merged with Stock Yards Bank & Trust in 2022.

Wells also acquired a stake in Citizens Financial Corporation, a life insurance company, and in the early 2000s created new lines of business that brought healthcare providers to residents of nursing homes, an operation now known as 360Care. For 46 years from 1973 he attended the annual Investment Round Table in New York each September with a circle of fellow investors including Lee Cooperman, Bob Farrell and Byron Wein.

He served as a director of Churchill Downs for 29 years, from 1985 to 2014, and was later named a director emeritus.

In the autumn of 1971 Wells went on a blind date arranged by a family friend, Es Snawder, with Margaret Ann Cowley. They married seven months later and remained together for more than 50 years. They had four children, Laura, Elizabeth, Lee and Eleanor, and ten grandchildren.

Wells was legally blind, and from 2001 to 2020 he served on the board of the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, also heading its investment committee. He was a keen racing fan and a member of the Starlight Racing syndicate, whose horse National Treasure won the 2023 Preakness Stakes and the 2024 Pegasus World Cup, and whose Citizen Bull won the 2025 Breeders' Cup Juvenile. He was also part of the family Baron Stables syndicate, which won the 2025 Black-Eyed Susan Stakes with Margie's Intention. His family said his passions were trading stocks, building businesses, creating jobs and, above all, his wife.

Wells was one of the early figures of the American hedge fund industry and, through Commonwealth Bank & Trust, the founder of one of Louisville's notable community banks of the late twentieth century. His long service on the boards of Churchill Downs and the American Printing House for the Blind tied him to two of the city's best known institutions. His family remembered him as a keen reader committed to lifelong learning, a great debater, a job creator, a philanthropist and a man of faith and family.