Lindholm looks back on 50 years as banking CEO

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 07:26 a.m., January 18, 2010

A lot has changed in the banking business since Paul Lindholm assumed duties in January 1960 as CEO of Blue Earth State Bank in southern Minnesota, a few miles from the Iowa border. Since 1988, Lindholm has served as CEO of Security State Bank in Fergus Falls.

“Yes, much has changed since 1960,” said Lindholm on Saturday morning in his office in the bank that’s located on the southwest corner of Washington and Cascade in Fergus Falls. “Today, we’re proud to say that Security State Bank is the only locally owned and managed bank in Fergus Falls.”

Security State Bank was established in 1957. The bank has 24 full-time employees and three part-time employees.

Lindholm in a native of Ortonville, Minn., less than a two-hour drive from Fergus Falls, near the South Dakota border. He farmed for nine years near Ortonville with his father and brother.

The professional and supportive relationship he shared with a bank at Clinton, Minn., near Ortonville, inspired his future career. With a wife and three children, he enrolled at the University of Minnesota.

“I was allowed to assume extra classes with extra credits, attending two full school years, with summer classes in between,” he said. “It was a grueling schedule, but I was fortunate to come out with a degree in business administration in 1957.”

Obtaining a four-year degree in 21 months is something he’s proud of, to this very day. An added honor was graduating with high distinction.

“It’s amazing what one can accomplish if you need to, and set your mind to it,” said Lindholm.

He was employed at Farmers State Bank in Madelia, Minn, south of Mankato, for 2-1/2 years. He spent 17 years as CEO at the bank in Blue Earth.

In 1977 Lindholm purchased Farmers and Merchants State Bank in Clarkfield, a community located between Montevideo and Marshall. His oldest son, Steve, joined him at the bank in Clarkfield after finishing service with the Army during the Vietnam Era. They worked together for 11 years. Steve now owns the bank in Clarkfield and another bank in nearby Granite Falls.

By 1988 Paul and his wife, Ruth, had built a home at Pickerel Lake in Otter Tail County. He was at a banking convention and stopped at a booth to inquire about possible banks for sale in the Fergus Falls area. This led to Lindholm talking on the phone with Mark Olson, CEO of Security State Bank.

“We were able to make a verbal agreement over the phone,” he said. “I went home and told my wife, ‘I bought a bank today.’ Needless to say, that caught her by surprise. She was delighted, after the papers were signed, to plan a move to this area, near our lake home.”

These days the Lindholms enjoy staying close to their four children and five grandchildren.

In Fergus Falls, Lindholm is active with Lakeland Hospice and the Salvation Army. He’s made special donations to the chapel at the new Hospice building and the chapel at the new cancer center.

A surprise to many people is Lindholm’s involvement with mission work and humanitarian work, overseas. A prime example is what he’s done in Kenya, Africa. He’s donated money to a faith-based university in Nairobi, where the administrative building is named in his honor. In Kenya he also helped build a maternity hospital in a small village.

Lindholm has worked through World Gospel Mission and Campus Crusade for Christ Outreach.

This past October in made stops in Romania and Poland, speaking at universities with the topic of success in business and life. He’s also visited Russia, Albania, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bolivia, Ethiopia and other countries.

He’s a past president of the Minnesota Bankers Association and was chairman of the agri-business committee of the American Bankers Association.

“I remember the days when daily entries were kept in a Boston-bound ledger,” said Lindholm, “and debts and credits were balanced by hand. Yes, we’ve come a long ways over the years. I feel blessed to have worked as a banking CEO for 50 years. Time has flown by since 1960.”

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