Nebraska banker helps Cornhusker Bank become a commercial lender

Some people call banking the unintended career, which was certainly true in my case. In 1963, after two years of business school, I grew tired of college..A friend of mine just happened to see an ad for Cornhusker Bank, based in Lincoln, Neb. I applied and was hired as teller and bookkeeper. It was a small bank then, under $1 million in assets. Like most banks that size I wore many hats; I even got to stay after hours and mow the lawn..I was a teller for three years and then I moved on to become cashier of the bank. By my fifth year there I began to be trained as a lender, acting as a consumer loan officer. Then in 1969, my sixth year at the bank, I became a commercial loan officer, becoming an executive vice president..By that point I managed the day-to-day operations of the bank, so I was placed on the board of directors. Just 26 years old at the time, I didn't know what that meant and I don't think I added much until I had listened for a while..I always found the bank's president George Frampton had an open door for a young banker with questions, and his daughter Alice Dittman, who later became president, continued the policy. The family still owns and runs the bank today..Before I came to the bank it had been called Farmers State Bank and was located in Davey, Neb., a small town just north of Lincoln. In 1960, the bank decided to move to Lincoln, changing its name to Cornhusker Bank. The move was motivated by future growth and expansion potential with emphasis in commercial and business lending. Lincoln was then growing and would provide needed opportunity for the bank to grow..The bank grew swiftly. In 1969, when I became a commercial lender, it was a small bank near $7 million. By 1979, we had grown the organization to $13 million. The bank then built a new home office, at a prominent intersection in town. People really knew where we were then. I remember a competing banker saying to me, "I drive down the street and look at your building; you don't look like a $13 million bank.".The building really helped increase our profile. In the years that followed, I helped the bank develop its commercial lending process. Most of it was nuts-and-bolts community banking. We got out there and beat the bushes to find loans, talking to people, calling on people and promoting our ability to serve the small business borrower..By 1992 we had grown to $96 million in assets. Even though we competed with eight other charters, we averaged 10 percent growth per year, and sometime we grew more than that..The population of Lincoln had increased by nearly 60 percent by the turn of the millennium. So, we added a mortgage division. By 2005, when I retired, the bank had grown to $241 million. Today it has $406 million in assets and nine offices throughout Lincoln..I happened to be in the right place at the right time. I was given great mentoring and great opportunities to succeed, and it turned into a 42-year employment with the same community bank. I am grateful to have been a part of it all and I am proud to continue to serve as a director on the bank's board.