Pub. 10 2021 Issue 4

Pub. 10 2021 Issue 4 9 • Don’t take yourself seriously. Stay humble and stay teachable. Sometimes you will be thrust into positions you have not been trained for, and you will have to do the best you can. • Pay it forward. However, sometimes you won’t realize the influence you have in a specific moment. For example, there was a young girl years ago who worked in the loan department I managed. I got a graduation announcement from her years after I left that bank. In the announcement, she wrote, “I wanted you to see this as you’re the reason I finished college.” I don’t remember the specific conversation when she felt encouraged to push through for her degree. What are some professional moments that make you the proudest? I started my career with the federal land bank. 1982 wasn’t the best year in the history of our Midwest economy, so I was very lucky to get one of only the six jobs offered for the four-state area it served. I received great credit analysis training, and after about five years, I went looking for a banking job and had to move to Oklahoma to find it. I worked for 13 years in Oklahoma before finding my way back across the state line, albeit just barely. When I got to Coffeyville in 2000, there were no locally owned banks. People perceived one of the banks as being local, but it had actually been owned out of state since the 1970s. After a little less than three years, I was lucky enough to put together a group of investors and acquired Community State Bank. I am proud to say our bank has been locally owned now for almost 20 years. The Coffeyville community deserved having a local bank, and I appreciate how they responded to it. Was there an “aha” moment in your career that defined you? I guess I’m still being defined, but as I mentioned earlier, owning a community bank has always been one of my goals ever since meeting Lendell Bass and seeing his business relationship with my dad. I was able to buy five shares of the Hanston State Bank in 1987 and remain a shareholder in that holding company. Thanks to reading the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, I have had a family mission statement that has helped balance the way I look at my life. Some of the previous KBA chairs and presidents are my acquaintances and friends. I appreciate everyone who has served before me, and I am doing this to honor their service to Kansas banks. I hope I am able to serve Kansas bankers well. What is your favorite way to spend your free time? Any unusual hobbies? Golf is probably my No. 1 hobby, and I am trying to play 300 different courses. I have about 260 on my list so far. I also enjoy an occasional Harley ride with my biker friends. I’m not sure if this qualifies as an unusual hobby, but I know it drives my wife and my biker friends crazy when they have to stop for me to buy a bumper sticker to add to my collection. I mean, who does not have a KSU Powercat or a Grab a Cup of Coffeyville sticker on their garage fridge, right?