ANNA — After 43 years in the banking industry, David Voisard, of Sidney, will close up his laptop and shut down his spreadsheets at the end of the month.
The vice president and branch manager of Peoples Federal Savings and Loan Association in Anna will be feted at an open house at the branch bank, 403 S. Pike St., Friday, April 29, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Voisard has been with Peoples for the last 12 years. He started his career with the then Citizens Baughman National Bank in Sidney in 1973.
“I grew up in Fort Loramie, graduated from Fort Loramie High in 1970. I worked for a year at Copeland and determined I didn’t want to do that the rest of my life,” Voisard said. He enrolled in Miami Jacobs Junior College in Dayton. When he graduated with a degree in accounting, he had offers of jobs in banking and by a certified public accountant. Voisard chose banking.
“I thought banking was more prestigious then,” he said. It was definitely more romantic. He had caught the eye of a secretary at the bank who went home at the end of Voisard’s first day on the job and told her dad, “They hired a big, red-faced farmer at the bank today.” Eventually, that secretary became the “farmer’s” wife. He and Marilyn raised two daughters, Leslie Lopez, now of Westchester, and Emily Baldwin, of rural Louisville, Kentucky. The Voisards have four grandchildren.
It was Don Fogt, a vice president, and Jerry Wagner, a manager of consumer loans, who interviewed and hired Voisard at Citizens Baughman.
“I had long hair (about chin-length),” Voisard said. Fogt and Wagner told him he’d have to get a haircut. When their new collections man showed up for work on his first day with suitably short hair, the receptionist at the bank didn’t even recognize him.
“I’m the new employee,” Voisard told her.
“No way!,” she answered.
Voisard noted that many bankers of yesteryear wouldn’t recognize their counterparts today.
“Then, we wore three-piece suits. Now it’s business casual with logo polo shirts,” he laughed.
That’s just one way banking has changed during the last four decades. Because he was in consumer collections, Voisard repossessed cars by pulling them out of garages and literally went knocking on people’s doors to get loan payments. Bankers don’t knock on doors much any more. And loans aren’t made the same way anymore, either.
“When I started making loans, you could almost make a loan on a handshake. People were honest then. A contract was one, 8 1/2-inch by 11-inch sheet of paper and a 5-inch notecard went into the file. Now, there’s so much paperwork required. I’ve never had anyone read a whole mortgage contract. Back then, it was four pages. Now it’s 16,” he said.
Voisard went from collections to consume lending to commercial lending to being manager of mortgage lending to branch management. As banks merged or were sold, he moved from one institution to another. Citizens Baughman became Bank One and it’s now Chase Bank. He joined First National, which became Star Bank, then FirstStar, then US Bank. He was at the West Ohio National Bank in Covington for two years and spent 12 years at the First National Bank of New Bremen in Sidney.
“When I’ve changed banks, a lot of customers would follow. That’s complimentary,” Voisard said. “It’s been fun over time. I’ve had people come up to me in Walmart and ask me for a loan. ‘Call me in the morning,’ I’d say. People I’ve helped with businesses that were starting or being resurrected — they still come up and say, ‘Thank you.’ That’s always nice. In 43 years, I’ve met a lot of people and made a lot of friends.”
That’s what he’ll most miss in retirement and why he plans to stay active in the community. A former Sidney Electric Girls Softball coach and past president of Sidney Lions Club, he is now a eucharist minister, usher and chairman of the Parish Finance Committee at Holy Angels Catholic Church, a member of the Salvation Army Advisory Board and a member of the Kiwanis Club. He recently joined the board of the new land bank created by the Shelby County Commissioners to address issues of deteriorating residential properties. At Christmas, he’ll continue to impersonate Santa Claus, something he’s done for years. This summer, he hopes to play a lot of golf.
“And after summer, I’ll try to get a part-time job,” he said. A three-piece suit and a haircut probably won’t be required this time.
