In retiring, the 68-year-old Wolter confessed that "this is kind of emotional for me and it is hard."

The Alabama league manager has served in countless leadership positions in CUNA and is credited with founding U.S. Central Corporate Credit Union while also involved in a host of strategic CU events and serving on key CUNA governance panels, including Renewal and the Renaissance Commission. He also helped form the Credit Union Roundtable, a high-level gathering of CEOs.

"In a nearly 50-year career, Gary Wolter is a true, visionary leader to whom colleagues throughout the credit union system, myself included, look for wisdom and counsel," said Dan Mica, CUNA president/CEO. "He has had an immeasurable impact on the credit union movement and he is a resource I can always turn to for a solid measure of credit union issues and concerns."

Often described as one of the industry's most dedicated and passionate servants, Wolter's own biography notes that his start in CUs began at Pen Air FCU in Pensacola, Fla. He was later hired by the Alabama league in Montgomery, transferred to Mobile, and during his first two years as a field rep organized 14 credit unions. In 1966, the league had a staff of 10 and assets of $200,000, compared to 40 today and assets topping $11 million.

A former chairman of the American Association of Credit Union Leagues, he has been a director of CUNA where he was a member of its executive committee. He is currently a director of Credit Union Benefits Services.

He is a former chairman of U.S. Central and served as a special consultant to the Association of British Credit Unions on behalf of the World Council of Credit Unions. Wolter has long been active in WOCCU and left last week on a mission with the Costa Rican CU federation and a special meeting with the president of Costa Rica, Oscar Arias Sanchez.

Wolter is also credited with helping form the Credit Union Legislative Action Council, CUNA's political action committee, as well as the National Credit Union Foundation.

In 1984, he was given the Eagle Award for his contributions to the movement as well as honors from OCCU and the British Credit Union Movement for nurturing the CU movement in the United Kingdom. Three years ago he was honored with the Eugene H. Farley Leadership Award.

In Alabama, he is chairman of EPL Inc., the league's data processing subsidiary, and Credit Union Service Centers Inc., a CUSO supporting shared facilities. He is also a member of the CO-OP Financial Services Board of Ontario, Calif.

Aside from Mica's comments, the league said other tributes came last week from a number of present and past industry leaders.

"Gary's legacy is the positive impact of his tremendous contribution over the years," said Roshara J. Holub, the chairman of the American Association of Credit Union Leagues and president/CEO of the Missouri Credit Union Association. "We thank him for his leadership and his commitment. No one has worked more diligently to foster unity and preserve and protect the credit union system."

In the league's formal statement on the retirement, Wolter explained that "while my passion and enthusiasm for the credit union movement is as strong as ever, I feel the time is right for me to step away and spend time doing things my wife Jean and I have planned for some time."

Wolter said he had been contemplating stepping down for months but "with so many meetings there was never the right time." Though in good health, advancing age convinced him that the league needed to plan for the future with younger talent.

Wolter joins another veteran manager, Guy M. Hood, president/CEO of the Florida Credit Union League, who announced earlier this year he would retire from that league in January 2009 after serving 20 years in the job.

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