Young and resourceful, Pete Bansmer went to Yakima Federal Savings and Loan Association for a loan to build a house, the start of a possible career in homebuilding.

He got turned down flat. The 23-year-old son of a doctor was not credit-worthy, the branch manager told him.

"It was my first experience with finance," the trim 62-year-old Bansmer recalls today.

It would not be his last.

Fast forward to 2008 and Bansmer is concluding a career, not in building homes, but helping other people build them and buy them. He retired last Tuesday on his 62nd birthday.

As president and chief executive officer of the bank that turned him down for a loan, Bansmer has helped chart steady growth for the mutual thrift, just the sixth man to lead the 105-year-old institution.

Ironically, Earl Weatherman had the same experience at
Yakima Federal.

Although older than Bansmer at the time of his application and more settled as the new chief executive officer of Yakima Valley Credit Union, he, too, was turned down by Yakima Federal. The reason: His homesite was on an unimproved road. He went to Yakima Federal because the credit union couldn't loan the amount he needed.

He appealed and the bank reconsidered.

It would not be the only time the lives and careers of these two men would be intertwined.

At the end, both are retiring this month with a combined 67 years of experience in community banking in the Yakima Valley, careers measured by steady growth and a belief in the community and not a rush for quick profits or marginal ventures.

Combined, the two institutions have $1.67 billion in assets under management; more than 100,000 depositors; and 220 employees in all. Yakima Federal is the older and larger of the two.

Yakima Federal, located in downtown Yakima since 1916, has resisted the numerous entreaties over the years to be bought out, Bansmer said.

"We are like the old maid with the big dowry," he said, referring to the bank's 18 percent assets-over-liabilities ratio.

The first house Yakima Federal financed -- a loan of $1,580 -- still stands on North Sixth Street.

In his office at 401 Tieton Drive, Weatherman has the old cigar box first used as the cash box when the credit union was formed in 1939 by firefighters. The Yakima Fire Department presented the box to the credit union 10 years ago.

Eventually, the institution expanded to include city and county employees and employees of Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital before opening its doors to everyone "who lives, works and worships in Washington state," Weatherman said.

Both men say their institutions served a much-needed purpose -- lending to families at a time when the commercial banks lent to businesses.

"We are a financial cooperative. Since we only dealt with consumers and were not for profit, we had tax advantages we could pass on to consumers left out in the cold," Weatherman said.

Yakima Valley Credit Union primarily provides car loans, unsecured loans, some home loans, equity financing and some small-business lending.

While it could expand elsewhere, the credit union chose to remain centrally located in the Yakima Valley.

"We understand the economy that drives the Yakima area and we know where the risks are high and we stay within those parameters," he added.

Similarly, Yakima Federal has remained to its core a mortgage lender and is now the largest thrift west of the Mississippi River. Nearly all its portfolio consists of home loans. It is a formula of conservative lending, based on home loans, savings and checking, and certificates of deposit, that has worked.

Yakima Federal doesn't even offer credit cards.

"We think the best posture for this organization is to provide home loans," Bansmer said.

Yakima Federal expects to reach the $1 billion mark in total dividends paid to depositors late this fall.

A graduate of Grandview High School, Bansmer joined Yakima Federal
in 1971 after graduating from Central Washington University. He started as a teller in the Ellensburg office where he recalls his cash drawer contained $2,000 each day.

He moved to Yakima to handle data processing and later became treasurer. He moved up to president in 1997.

Weatherman grew up in Spokane and got a job with the Kaiser Mead Federal Credit Union before he finished college at Eastern Washington University.

He moved to Bellevue to work for the Washington State Credit Union League where he traveled the state, training volunteer boards of directors and staff about how to operate a credit union.

Hankering to get back to Eastern Washington, Weatherman decided to see if he could put the training into practice. He was hired as Yakima Valley Credit Union CEO in 1978.

Both men remain optimistic about the future of the Yakima Valley. Weatherman calls the area the real deal and a growing magnet for light industrial, technology firms, commercial and residential development.

"We have low land prices, a labor force and great weather. Gradually, people in Western Washington will realize the potential and the economic benefits of being in Eastern Washington and the greater Yakima area," he said.

Both say they will remain in the Yakima area. Weatherman, after he retires at the end of the month, said he and his wife, Sharron, will drive their motor home to Alaska and stay as long as they want.

But service to the community will be their hallmark.

"I have to have a purpose and goals and objectives," the 63-year-old Weatherman said. "If I don't go back to work in some fashion, I'll be volunteering all over."

Bansmer, married 38 years to wife Glenda, said he will remain on the Yakima Federal board, the board of the Yakima County Development Association, a member of Rotary and involved in Operation Harvest. He also will be the newly appointed historian for Yakima Federal.

Oh, he also expects to put back on his carpenter's tool belt to make repairs at a family cabin at Goose Prairie.

* David Lester can be reached at 577-7674 or dlester@yakimaherald.com.