MANCHESTER, N.H. — When St. Mary's Bank Credit Union CEO Ron Rioux made the conversion from the banking industry to credit unions 15 years ago, he only needed to look up hill for a better understanding and inspiration.

Problem was no one knew that. Knowing the credit union was the first in the U.S. and that the 100th anniversary wasn't terribly far off, Rioux sought out the credit union's roots.

After talking to some of the board members and doing some research on his own, Rioux discovered that the original site of St. Mary's Bank was just a block uphill. What had been the Boivin family home was then being used as an apartment building.

He called up the owner, who knew of the historic significance for credit unions, and they met for lunch. Rioux told him if he ever wanted to sell to let him know. Just two weeks later the owner called back and said he wanted, not to sell, but to donate the building.

Rioux explained that he had never intended for St. Mary's Bank to own the building so they “moved quickly to set up a foundation to own the building.” Local publicity drew a woman in her 90s to attend the closing–the daughter of St. Mary's Bank's first manager. Gilberte Boivin, immortalized in the museums entryway (see photo page 1), took representatives from the credit union on a trip back in time and through what was once her home, her father's law practice, and the original St. Mary's Bank, capturing the entire event on tape. Boivin had met the likes of Alphonse Desjardins and others who helped to launch the credit union movement in the U.S.

Rioux, who currently serves as vice chairman of the museum board, said of the museum, “It provides an opportunity to really say in touch with their roots and their beginnings. Credit unions were originally started to serve people of modest means.”

Designers kept this in mind when putting it back together. Not only did they stay true to the original architecture, but in its functionality. The first floor portrays credit unions' beginnings, from placing a desk exactly as it had been in 1908–thanks to Boivin–to rooms, like NAFCU's, displaying the history of credit unions. The second floor shows how the credit union movement spread across the country. The third floor is a conference room, demonstrating the future of credit unions, Rioux explained.

“It's wonderful to see it operating the way it is now,” he said. “It's great because that's really why it was created.

The museum's executive director, Peggy Powell, operates the museum, which is open to the public Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.; however, she said it doesn't get much foot traffic from the general public.

Primarily, credit union groups come to see it and use the conference center. The museum also hosts events for its non-profit community partners. Powell said it's not that unusual to have events going on four out of five days a week.

From this learning experience, Rioux was determined to expand community outreach, working to serve the modern-day mill worker and immigrants, as St. Mary's Bank had done at the turn of the last century.

He said the credit union has adopted a philosophy of committing to projects over several years rather than just one for best results. “Doing it in multiple years requires a different level of commitment and lining up of resources…Without it, I don't think results are as significant,” Rioux said. For example, Rioux was instrumental in getting the $35 million housing commitment in New England going a couple of years ago. Not only did it end up reaching $70 million, but he added, that is something that never would have happened in the banking industry. He also started the Credit Union Consumers Cooperative ATM network.

St. Mary's bank provides a wide variety of loan products from several dozen different mortgage products to emergency loans (particularly for heating oil up in New Hampshire) to lead paint loans. The credit union also just rolled out a payday loan alternative program and was part of a pilot program that is becoming a full-blown effort providing regular mortgage loans on manufactured housing.

–scooke@cutimes.com

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