Lindholm a ‘Pioneer Banker’

By Lauren Radomski (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, June 30, 2008

It seems Paul Lindholm has a lot to celebrate this year. After all, 2008 marks not only his 60th anniversary with his wife, Ruth, but also 50 years in the banking business.

In recognition of those 50 years, Lindholm, chairman and CEO of Security State Bank in Fergus Falls, has been designated a “Pioneer Banker” by the Minnesota Bankers Association (MBA), one of several people inducted into the organization’s Pioneer Club in mid-June.

Lindholm became interested in banking as a young man working on his family’s Ortonville farm. He was a partner in his family’s farm for nine years after high school, and says the professional and supportive relationship he shared with his local bank inspired his future career.

After graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1957, Lindholm worked as a teller at Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Madelia. He became president of Blue Earth State Bank two years later, serving there for 17 years. Lindholm purchased Farmers State Bank in Clarkfield in 1977 before purchasing Security State Bank in 1988.

Lindholm has seen many changes to the banking business over the course of his career. Gone are the days when daily entries were kept in a Boston-bound ledger and debts and credits were balanced by hand.

Not to mention changes in the amount of paperwork.

“Regulations now require more than 40 sheets of paper to document a home loan when previously it was a note and a mortgage, which was only two sheets,” Lindholm said.

The banking business in general was also more personal 50 years ago.

“A banker would know his customer and likely his family,” Lindholm said. “All transactions were by name rather than by account number.”

Those personal relationships, Lindholm said, helped him establish a record of zero foreclosures over his banking career.

Even after so many years in the business, Lindholm shows no signs of slowing down. He shows up at the bank most mornings by 7 a.m., there to greet employees when they arrive at quarter past.

“We have wonderful people here,” he said of the bank’s 24-member staff.

Lindholm says he has no immediate plans for retirement, though he is in the process of transferring bank ownership to his son, Steve, who owns Farmers State Bank in Clarkfield and Granite Falls Bank.

Steve Lindholm is one of the bank’s current directors, along with his three siblings: John, pastor of Western Presbyterian Church locally; Rebecca, a musician in Minneapolis; and Matthew, who teaches at Concordia College in Moorhead.

In 2004 Paul received the American Banking Association’s prestigious Bruning Award, given annually to a banker for outstanding commitment to ag banking.

Lindholm also makes two charitable trips internationally each year. Since the early 1990s, he has visited countries including Romania, Cambodia, Bolivia and Kenya, where he assisted in the building and continuing support of two hospitals.