Pub. 10 2021 Issue 4

6 How is your last name pronounced? AV. My ancestry has been traced back to Austria. The pronunciation of my last name has been a good conversational topic my entire life. Tell us about your family . I am so lucky that my wife, Leslie, settled for me. I’m the son of a teacher, and I married a teacher. Leslie has taught since graduating from Oklahoma State. She left the classroom seven years ago and is currently the coordinator for Parents as Teachers. I must give my wife most of the parenting credit. Luckily, the kids didn’t pay that much attention to me. Our daughter, Kirsten, will be 26 in August. She works for Ignite Medical Resort in the Kansas City area. Our son, Christopher, is 23 and a recent graduate from Kansas State University with a business degree. He just began his career with RTS Financial in Overland Park. How did you become a banker? Did you always aspire to be part of the financial industry? I did. I became interested in banking because of my dad’s friend, Lendell Bass. Lendell was the president of Hanston State Bank during my high school years. I thought what he did was pretty cool. When a sponsor was needed, Lendell was always there, representing Hanston State Bank. Lendell recommended that mom and dad mortgage some farm ground to buy stock in the Hanston State Bank. It turns out that was a pretty good recommendation. At a high school graduation party, Lendell asked if I would like to work at the bank as a teller over the summer. I thought that sounded like more fun than driving the tractor in circles, and my dad said OK because he knew it would save him equipment repair bills. When I went to college that fall, I went with a community banking career in mind. Describe your educational background. What did you study? I grew up on a farm in a small town of about 200 people. There were 14 students in my graduating class and maybe 75 students total in the high school. I attended Barton County Community College and then transferred to Kansas State University. One of the classes I took for my first- semester finance degree at Kansas State University was a macroeconomics class called Money and Banking. I had enrolled late (that’s another story for another day), so I bombed my first Mike Ewy Q&A with Incoming Chairman: Mike, Christopher, Kirsten, and Leslie Ewy