He's all business

This article was printed in the St. Petersburg Times in 2005 when my dad's bank was first opening:

Opening and operating a new bank can be like working with your family.

That's the message from xxx, founder, president and chief executive of xxx, which began business April 4. The bank's executives and all 18 employees were handpicked, xxx said. All are former business associates and employees.

"My role as president and chief executive officer obviously is to direct the activities and create, if you will, our culture, our philosophy on how we do business," xxx said. "It's pretty simple in community banking - be the best at providing personal service to your customer. That's what a community bank is all about."

xxx has its business offices in a temporary facility at xxx and its banking facility nearly 20 blocks away at xxx. A new 8,800-square-foot facility is under construction at xxx, scheduled for completion in May, xxx said. Plans call for another office building at xxx, with an opening projected in August.

"Typically, community banks are getting their business from larger banks," he said. "Typically, our business comes from people who are dissatisfied with bigger banks. It's rare we get customers from another community bank."

A native of Clearwater, xxx graduated from xxx in 1966. He served four years in the Air Force, from 1968 to 1972, and later earned an associate's degree from St. Petersburg Junior College in 1978. After that, xxx studied business at the University of South Florida.

He also started his banking career in 1978 as a management trainee with xxx. After five years, xxx left xxx to join xxx, then returned to xxx in 1989. He joined xxx in 1991 as senior vice president and senior leader and left xxx as president, chief executive and member of the board of directors in 2002.

For the next 21/2 years, xxx honored a noncompete provision and planned his own community bank, he said.

Why banking? "I just like the financial management and the financial aspects of the business," xxx said. "I was always interested in accounting and (in) business. I like to form relationships," he said. "My personality was not one to sit in a cubicle and crunch numbers.

"Every day, we're getting new customers (and) I know most of the customers," he added. "I give my direct line to everybody. I talk to everyone. I answer my own phone. People can literally pick up the phone and talk to a live person."

xxx has been involved with the Pinellas County Education Foundation, a program for low-income students in Pinellas County. He said he has been mentoring the same student, now in the ninth grade, for the past six years.

xxx, 56, and his wife, xxx, live in Seminole. They have three adult children.

In his spare time, xxx said he likes to play golf. He and his wife also like to travel, he said, usually taking at least two cruises a year.

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I think it's interesting to note that my dad said he's all about forming relationships, yet he's never seemed to want any kind of warm or genuine reciprocated relationship with his own children. I also think it's interesting that he said he gave his direct number to everyone and that any old customer could pick up the phone and call him, yet I try to call him for months and he won't answer the phone or call me back. Sad, too, that he doesn't mind "mentoring" this poor black kid (quality and frequency of said mentoring not fully established) but he refuses to be a father or grandfather for me or Elliot. Funny, too, that the most mention we get is one line about him having three adult children. I guess his "community service" work rated higher.

It's most interesting of all to note that he was fired from this, his own, company just a few years later and has been retired ever since. The details surrounding this firing are completely unclear, and dad is only offering a story that makes no sense whatsoever. My counsellor asked me once how I felt about my dad being fired from his own company, one that he had spent years planning and organising and bringing to life. My answer? I said I was happy to know that, at least sometimes, bad things do happen to bad people.