Just a few short months ago, we lost a major player in our credit union movement.

John Arnold was a giant in the construction of our corporate system for our credit unions. In the last half of the 1970s, John and a few others were selected to head the “centrals” (as they were called in those days) in our respective states under the guidance of the leagues. John, in Texas, may have had more credit union experience than the rest of us new guys. He knew about credit union needs and, more importantly, knew how to get things done in the league hierarchy. Jim Jukes, the Kansas Credit Union League president, had started this system in his home state. Jim, one of the original “good ole boys,” convinced his league counterparts that this was a worthwhile venture. And so “centrals” were started in many of the states. Bill Broxterman in California, Will McKenna in Texas, Gene Farley in Virginia, Gary Wolder in Alabama, and others opened centrals in their states. Each of them hired someone to get this new idea for a credit union off the ground. Boards were formed of experienced credit union leaders to offer guidance to this new person in charge.

Problem was, all of those folks mentioned above were fully occupied doing their day jobs. The “new hire” was very much alone in trying to make something worthwhile happen. That is when John's style and organization skills came into play. He brought several of us together in the offices of the Texas Credit Union League. Don Finn, Phil Chenault, Ray Dowling and myself spent a couple of days trying to set some standards for these new organizations.

It was not easy. None of us had worked with each other before and each of us had an independent idea. We did a lot of agreeing to disagree. But John was not going to let us fail or go away frustrated. He had us agree on a couple of points and provided us with an experienced “ear” to listen to what we had decided at this early stage. He made an appointment and took us in to present our thoughts to one of the older and wiser heads of the time, Will McKenna, president of the Texas Credit Union League. It was like having an audience with the pope. He didn't have much to say, but blessed and instructed us to stay in touch and keep working. I am sure John prepped McKenna before we arrived.

In the years following, John's role of getting people together grew. At every single meeting of corporate credit union people, John was present to meet with every attendee. You could disagree with John, but you would never find him disagreeable.

Well, as most of Credit Union Times' readers know, the corporate system scratched and clawed its way into a financial miracle: from zero on the balance sheet to many billions of dollars. As much as 30% of all the excess funds of credit unions are deposited/invested in corporates. Probably 85-90% of all credit unions are members of at least one corporate. Billions of dollars a day are transferred into and out of corporates and U. S. Central and John and Dick Ayres were the key players to make it happen.

When John left the corporate he built (and that is another story), he was commissioned to write the history of the corporates by the Association of Corporate Credit Unions–he called it, “THE JOURNEY.” Very fitting–for he walked every step of the way.

We miss you John, but your legacy lives on. Dick Johnson Retired president of WesCorp Claremont, Calif.