Retirement offers time to reflect after several decades at Southwest Minnesota bank

Alvin Kooiman has just completed a 42-year period of service to the board of directors at the First State Bank Southwest, Worthington, Minn., and he said the timing is just right. After working through a career that included a farm crisis, two market crashes, the advent of the computer and a global pandemic, Kooiman said it’s artificial intelligence and the preponderance of fraud in banking these days that tell the 77-year-old it’s time to retire..His last day in banking — Dec. 31, 2025 — marked the completion of a nearly 60-year career in banking. In 1983, he started working at the First State Bank Southwest, which was then called the Rushmore State Bank, joining the board a year later. The mid-1980s might sound like a difficult time to work at an agricultural bank in the rural Midwest, but Kooiman notes he joined the bank after working seven and a half years at First Bank in Worthington. Kooiman, who grew up on a farm near Edgerton, Minn., served as the branch manager of Rushmore State Bank’s new branch in Worthington. “I was in Worthington without any loans, so we didn’t have any troubled loans,” he said.First Bank at the time was trimming its ag loan portfolio, substantially discounting some of the loans. Many of those farmers took their business to Rushmore State Bank. “They were given big write-downs at the time, some as much as 50 or even 70 percent. Well, by then, those loans looked pretty good. So we were taking on new farmers,” Kooiman explained. Gene Platt, who worked with Kooiman, also had worked at First Bank; many of those farmers who needed a new bank welcomed the prospect of working with a familiar lender.Kooiman served as president of the bank, which adopted the First State Bank Southwest name in 2001, until the end of 2013, which capped a three-year transition period to the next president, Greg Raymo. Kooiman, however, stayed on the bank’s board of directors. The bank grew from about $20 million in assets in 1983 to nearly $400 million in assets today. Raymo served as president through the end of 2024, when Mark Vis took over as president.Upon Kooiman’s retirement from the bank presidency, he took up a new challenge working for the broader community banking industry. Kooiman had served on the board of directors of the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota for eight years, and leadership talked about the need for the association to hire a calling officer to improve member relations and encourage new memberships. “I told them, if you put that together, I’m gonna be your guy,” Kooiman declared.The trade group, now called BankIn Minnesota, hired him and for the next four and a half years, Kooiman traveled around the state, visiting with any bank that would take his appointment. “He was very organized and committed to the effort. He’s the epitome of a community banker,” commented Jim Amundson, who headed the group during Kooiman’s last year of service to the organization. “He backed up the message with a lot of credibility. As a well-known community banker, he could offer a very good perspective on the value of the association and its services.”“That was a great time, and I really enjoyed it,” Kooiman reflected. “And I was pretty successful; we got quite a few new members.” One of those new members was Rich Jones, CEO of the Randall State Bank, who became active in the association and last year was named BankIn Minnesota president & CEO.Ironically, immediately upon his retirement from the bank president’s job, Raymo went to work for the trade group also, serving as interim president/CEO for a few months while the board searched for permanent leadership when Amundson left to become CEO of United Bankers’ Bank.Kooiman, reflecting on the last six decades, credited those around him. “You can’t do any of this on your own; you have got to have great people around you,” Kooiman said. “I was able to hire some of those people.”He called his opportunity to work with Raymo, and Platt who served as president of the bank before Kooiman, a “real blessing.” Platt, Kooiman noted, was the person who brought a KSOP to the bank several years ago. A KSOP combines the features of a 401(k) plan with an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Kooiman said it is a benefit that has made a big difference for many First State Bank Southwest employees.Reflecting on his time working with Raymo, Kooiman said “We often said our personalities were so different, but when it comes to banking, we were always on the same page.”Kooiman said they were unified on an important point. “One thing we stressed at the bank — Gene started it, I continued it, so did Greg and now Mark is — that we stress to the employees: it’s God first, family second and work third, and in that order.”