John V. Anderson purchased F&M Financial institution within the early Seventies. It’s a third-generation household enterprise right now.
John V. Anderson celebrates 75 years in neighborhood banking this yr. The chairman emeritus of F&M Financial institution provides us a glimpse of his life, his profession and the teachings he’s realized alongside the way in which.
By Molly Bennett
Title:
F&M Financial institution
Property:
$650 million
Location:
Crescent, Okla.
How do you seize a life in 1,000 phrases? The reply: with issue. And when that life takes within the Nice Despair, World Conflict II and 75 years in neighborhood banking, the problem turns into extra acute. However right here goes nothing.
John V. Anderson, who’s 95, is chairman emeritus of F&M Financial institution in Crescent, Okla. Since shopping for it 50 years in the past, he has watched it develop from a single-branch neighborhood financial institution to 1 with 9 areas throughout the state and $650 million in belongings. His three sons and one daughter are all concerned within the 100% family-owned enterprise, as are three of his grandchildren.
“And I’ve acquired great-grandchildren now which are starting to drive automobiles, in order that’s the subsequent wave that desires a job,” he laughs.
“In these 75 years, I’ve made numerous associates. I simply did the perfect I might at no matter job I had.”
—John V. Anderson, F&M Financial institution
Anderson’s household ties have at all times been robust. He was born right into a farming household in Choctaw, Okla., in 1927. His father’s household, members of the Residents Potawatomi Nation, farmed corn and cotton, and his mom got here from a produce farming household.
When Anderson was three, his father misplaced his job on the native utility firm. “We needed to skimp and save,” he says. “We picked cotton, and we chopped cotton and corn. We didn’t have a automotive, so we needed to stroll out to the fields. That made such an impression on me. So, each job I’ve had, I’d do the perfect job I might.”
In 1945, proper after highschool, he enlisted within the Navy, ending boot camp proper because the U.S. dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was stationed on an plane service and took half in Operation Magic Carpet, which noticed U.S. troops gathering armed forces personnel from varied Pacific islands and dropping them off at San Diego or Pearl Harbor. “We had been part of a extremely joyful time, as a result of everyone was coming dwelling,” Anderson says.
The banking journey begins
After he was discharged, he labored at a utility firm earlier than taking a job at Liberty Nationwide Financial institution in Oklahoma Metropolis in 1947. There, he labored his method up from messenger to teller to the correspondence division. The latter is the place he met his spouse, Jo Laverne, who’s 93.
“She labored about 10 toes from me … and I assumed she was a reasonably handsome woman. I’d shoot a rubber band again there every so often simply to get her consideration,” he laughs. The couple celebrated their 73rd marriage ceremony anniversary in September.
Anderson (middle, standing), who’s chairman emeritus of F&M Financial institution; his three sons and one daughter, all of whom work on the neighborhood financial institution; and his spouse, Jo Laverne (seated).
However again to 1972. That yr, Anderson was senior vice chairman of operations at Liberty when one in every of his business connections, J.R. Gibson, who owned F&M Financial institution in Crescent, Okla., informed Anderson he was seeking to promote on account of well being issues.
“He stated, ‘In case you are , you’d be my first alternative,’” Anderson says. “I stated, ‘J.R., let me inform you that I don’t have any cash, I’ve no internet value and I’ve no secondary supply of revenue. However I’ll see what I can do.’”
Anderson went to some colleagues at Liberty Nationwide Financial institution, they usually agreed to think about loaning him the $548,000 he wanted—about $4 million right now. “And I assumed, for those who make me a mortgage, you’re most likely the worst mortgage officers I’ve ever run into,” he laughs. “However anyhow, they made that mortgage.”
Anderson says that when one of many presidents at Liberty heard in regards to the mortgage, he stated, “Let me inform you one thing. You’re gonna be one of many final guys that may purchase a financial institution with simply sweat fairness.”
And so started the Anderson household’s possession of F&M Financial institution. It was a baptism of fireplace: The late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties introduced a recession, excessive inflation and better rates of interest; Anderson was paying 18% curiosity on the mortgage he used to purchase the financial institution. However F&M survived via onerous work and the connections Anderson had made.
Recollections of John V. Anderson’s life in neighborhood banking and elsewhere.
Since then, the neighborhood financial institution’s progress has been regular. It acquired a handful of distressed banks through the years and opened branches to develop its footprint. Anderson has been an lively member of the Oklahoma Bankers Affiliation and ICBA, and he additionally sat on the board of First Nationwide Financial institution & Belief Co., a Potawatomi tribal financial institution in Shawnee, Okla. His son, John Tom Anderson, is a present director.
“We’ve wonderful relations with the tribe, and [F&M Bank] does some loans with the Bureau of Indian Affairs,” Anderson says.
At present, he and his household have their eyes on the longer term. “Proper now, we’re within the technique of drawing up guidelines for using members of the family,” he says. “We would like them to have a superb training, and we would like them to work someplace else for 3 or 4 years to see what it’s wish to work for any individual that’s very goal. We would like them to look at the identical requirements that everyone observes once they come to work for us.”
In 2019, Anderson was inducted into the Oklahoma Bankers Corridor of Fame. “I assumed that was one thing,” he says. “I’ve accomplished that via mentors and friendships, and in these 75 years I’ve made numerous associates. I simply did the perfect I might at no matter job I had.”
John V. Anderson’s deep perception in training
Having gone straight from highschool to the Navy after which into the workforce, John V. Anderson by no means went to school.
His first employer in banking, Liberty Nationwide Financial institution in Oklahoma Metropolis, Okla., supplied banking programs without spending a dime to its workers—so long as learners handed. “Properly, I took benefit of all these programs that I might,” Anderson says.
Later, he went to the Graduate College of Banking in Madison, Wis., and in addition relied on mentors. “A few of them had been guys who had made it via in banking in the course of the huge Despair,” he says. “They had been actually seasoned bankers, and I appreciated what they did to assist me alongside.
“I’m an actual believer in getting all of the training that you may in a subject that you just assume you’re gonna take pleasure in.”
Molly Bennett is government editor of Impartial Banker.
