Longtime Twin Cities community banking leader Bob Barsness, of Edina, passed away March 18 at the age 81 from cancer..Barsness worked at Prior Lake State Bank from 1969 until he retired as president in 2014. Hired as an assistant cashier, Barsness was appointed director, executive vice president and cashier in 1976. He succeeded his father, E. Norman Barsness, as president and CEO of the bank in 1989. He retired from banking in 2014, the year the bank was acquired by Klein Bank, Chaska, Minn. Barsness was a member and chair of what is now BankIn Minnesota in 1994-95 and was the 1999-2000 chair of the Independent Community Bankers of America. Barsness was one of the founding officers of the Bank Holding Company Association in 1981. Born March 31, 1944, Barsness grew up in Richfield, Minn., graduating from high school in 1962, according to his obituary. Barsness, who graduated from St. Olaf College in Northfield, was commissioned into the Marine Corp shortly after graduation. He was deployed to Vietnam late in 1967, where was stationed near the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Vietnam. He reached the rank of Major, serving three years in active duty and 15 years in the Reserves. After he was discharged from the military, Barsness attended banking school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Barsness was also politically active in his younger years, and was a delegate at the Republican National Convention in 1980.
