Ah, yes, this is the corporate version of “I want to spend more time with my family” because you can’t actually say a lot of people didn’t want me around. Which is the truth for David Cote and Ellen Futter.

Bye-bye (behind Wall Street Journal paywall):

Two members of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.’s board announced Friday they would step down, the latest ripple from the “London Whale” trading losses in 2012 that raised questions about oversight and governance at the nation’s largest bank.

The retirements from the bank’s board of Honeywell International Inc. Chief Executive David Cote and American Museum of Natural History President Ellen Futter come nearly two months after the two directors drew less than 60% support from shareholders at the company’s annual meeting and emerged as targets of activist investors who blamed them for risk-management lapses.

It is unusual for directors to get such a low level of votes when seeking re-election. Mr. Cote received 59% backing and Ms. Futter received 53%, the worst showing of any board member.

This didn’t happen because of some personal insight of wrongdoing. No, it came because of a little pressure from shareholders, mostly pension fund activists.

Truthfully, the person who should really go is CEO Jamie Dimon since JP Morgan is being investigated all over the place for potential violations of the law while he’s been at the helm. But, I’ll take a very tiny bit of satisfaction that a couple of corporate directors, who sat on their asses and did zilch while JP Morgan played a role in the financial crisis, are having to give up their little cushy service.