CNBC Chief Commentator Bill Seidman has died at the age of 88.

Seidman, a consultant and publisher, was a World War II veteran and former FDIC chair. He also served in the Ford administration as Assistant for Economic Affairs, and in the Reagan administration as co-chair of the White House Conference on Productivity.

In addition, Seidman was the first chairman of the Resolution Trust Corporation, a government entity created in 1989 in the wake of the savings and loan crisis.

CNBC's Tyler Mathisen reported that Seidman died "after a brief illness." Seidman, Mathisen said, "educated a whole generation of us reporters about the intricacies of the banking system," adding that CNBC "will have multiple appreciations of this marvelous public servant all day today."