Hometown kid turned banker retires from banking

He grew up in the area, graduating from Kasson-Mantorville in 1979. He met his high school sweetheart, Andrea, who worked 42 years for Mayo before retiring.

Now, after 44 years as a banker in Kasson, Bradford will be retiring this week. His last day on the job as the senior vice president of business banking at Alerus (formerly Kasson State Bank) is Oct. 24, with the bank planning a retirement celebration.

“I got to work my entire career in my hometown,” he said.

After graduating high school, Bradford said, he wasn’t really sure what he wanted to do, but he had enjoyed business classes. He decided to attend Rochester Vo Tech, where he took banking and finance classes. That included a 30-day internship at the Kasson bank, he said, and when it was over, Dick Palmer, owner of Kasson State Bank, hired him as a teller.

Bradford said he really owes his career to Dick Palmer and the Palmer family. He stayed at Kasson State Bank for 34 years, until it was sold to Home Federal. He worked for Home Federal for nine years. Home Federal was acquired by Alerus a year ago.

On the job training

Most of what he knows about banking, he said, was learned on the job. Working in a small-town bank, he was never assigned to just one thing.

“I did whatever I was asked to do,” he said.

In the late 1980s, he got into the lending area of banking. He started in consumer lending, then commercial, and then universal loans.

He became president of Kasson State Bank in 2004, he said, which was a difficult time, as Dick Palmer had fallen ill and died. Dick Palmer’s children were still at the bank after their father’s death, he said, but more regulations and cost for compliance made times tough for small town independent banks. The decision was made to sell to Home Federal.

Even after the acquisition, Bradford said, the same faces were working at the bank.

“That’s important,” Bradford said, “because you bank with the person.”

As the years went by, he said, banking became more complicated as there were more regulatory requirements.

“That’s not unique to banking,” he said. “Technology is great but it kind of reduces one to one contact.” That can mean there is not as much loyalty to the institution, and that is why the personal touch is so important. The result locally, he said, is a customer base that still feels a sense of loyalty.

Community involvement

Throughout his career, Bradford has been actively involved in the community. He clerked the annual Care and Share Auction for years and was on the original Festival in the Park committee. He spent six years as the Chamber of Commerce treasurer and also volunteered for the high school football chain gang.

Part of his job has been to represent the bank in the community, he said, and Alerus is a strong advocate for community support, encouraging employees to be active locally.

Bradford said he and Andrea have no real plans for retirement. They want to do some traveling, he said, and they also have two granddaughters in Kasson. And, “I love to play golf.”

He’s retiring from bank-related activities, he said, but he will still be involved in the community.

He and his wife can now pick and choose activities, based on what fits, he said. He added he also loves high school sports, and they like to attend live music events. The only limit is that Tuesday night is his golf night.

Probably because of his love of golf, Bradford said he is not too concerned about spring, summer and fall. During the winter months, he said, he will be joining Kern Financial for the tax season.

Looking back on his career, he said, “It was without a doubt the strength of our staff contributed to my personal growth.”

He learned from his co-workers, and there was excellent teamwork, he said.

The bank, he said, had very little turnover in employees.

He said he is proud of the career he had with limited post high school education.

“I don’t have any regrets,” he said. “I’d do it all over again. I helped a lot of people over the years.”

When Monday comes around, he said, Kyle Benish, who lives in Byron and is a commercial banker in Rochester, will be taking over his lending duties. The bank also has a new branch manager, Lisa Manthes.