If it hadn’t been for former freshmen basketball coach and CCHS business teacher Tom Hall, Steve Willis might have followed a different path.  But, 40-some years later, Willis is set to retire from a career he has found interesting and rewarding.

After graduating from college in the early 1970s, Willis came back to Clinton and was looking for something to do.  Hall had left teaching and was at DeWitt County Savings & Loan, what eventually became DeWitt Savings Bank.

Hall eventually left to take a banking job in the southwest U.S.  Willis said he, “stuck around long enough that somebody said, ‘hey why don’t we give him the job’.”  Willis will retire on Friday as president of the bank.

Willis and his wife Barb have spent their entire careers in Clinton, and they raised their children here.  She was a kindergarten teacher at Washington School.

“I never did have any desire to live in Chicago or any big city,” Willis says.

Willis has been bank president for 18 of his years at DSB, assuming those responsibilities after the retirement of Dixie Walden.

In Willis’ early days in his career, as a savings and loan company, there were a number of services they were prohibited from offering.

“They (the federal government) deregulated in the 1980s, and suddenly we could offer all these other products,” Willis says.  “When you’re helping people buy a house, that’s a big deal.  There’s a lot of satisfaction in helping someone buy their first home.”

And, the home buying process is more complicated than it used to be.  Banks are no longer permitted to handle every phase of a home purchase, such as appraisals, credit checks, etc.

Regulations that affect the banking industry has been something of a ride during Willis’ years in the business, going from little regulation to heavy regulation and back again.

“I’ve been doing this long enough to see the pendulum swing both ways,” he says.  “It has swung too far in both directions.”

Willis said it used to be possible to close the sale of a home within about two weeks.  Now it takes closer to five or six weeks.

Willis also has seen the advent of computers in banking.  It often took a couple of hours to process a day’s business after closing.

“Now, usually, we’re out of here in 10 or 15 minutes.”

Of course, computers have also added cost, not so much in the individual work stations, but in servers and upgrades, firewalls and associated software.

Particularly rewarding has been Willis’ ability to help customers over the years, some of whom found themselves in tough financial situations.  He pointed out the fact that DeWitt Savings is a “mutual bank.”  It is owned by its customers.

The bank being invested in the community is something Willis takes seriously.  They have often worked with large, nationwide banks and mortgage companies, something that can resemble more of a battle, to keep local homes occupied rather than allow a foreclosure.

Occasionally, they’ve been asked to do something a bit unusual, like the time a customer who had a heart problem asked for a loan to buy a stationary bicycle based on his doctor’s advice.

“Dixie and I were sitting talking about it asking, ‘can we really do this’,” Willis says.  “But, everything worked out fine.”

SIDEBAR

Justin Fentress will assume responsibilities as bank president with Willis’ retirement.

Fentress is a graduate of Wapella High School and Millikin University.  He was a computer programmer and also sold investment products in the Chicago area for about 15 years.

He has been with DeWitt Savings Bank for about seven years.