When Paul Simkins left his bank job to become a credit union branch manager, he admitted that “service to others” was not on his mind.

After learning and experiencing the difference between credit union and banks, however, Simkins became known as one of the industry's leading pioneers when he retired in 2005.

Simkins, a cofounder and the charter vice president of CULIANCE, formerly CU24, and president/CEO of five different credit unions, passed away on May 26 at the age of 77 in Florida, his son, Paul Simkins Jr., said.

He became the MasterCard manager for Sun Banks of Orlando in 1969 when Walt Disney World was just getting started in Orlando. He noticed Disney employees were coming to the bank to cash their checks drawn from Security Pacific Bank of California, and he had to sign off on the approval. So he contacted Disney and proposed they wire the employees' payroll funds directly to Sun Banks to make it easier for employees to cash their checks.

That initiative paid off for Simkins.

In 1973, he was hired as a branch manager Vista Federal Credit Union in Orlando whose field-of-membership included Walt Disney World employees. Simkins admits that when he began working at Vista FCU he didn't come with any cooperative mission in mind.

“It was just a job,” he said in a 2005 interview with CU Times.

He met executives through CUES who were all out ministers for credit unions, and they converted him, he said.

After earning his stripes at Vista FCU, Simkins went on to work as president/CEO of McCoy Federal Credit Union in Orlando. Then he began crisscrossing the U.S. working first on the West Coast as president/CEO for Mare Island Federal Credit Union in Vallejo, Calif., then back to the East Coast as president/CEO, MacDill Federal Credit Union in Tampa. He followed that by working as president/CEO at Pan Am Horizons Federal Credit Union in Homestead, Fla.

What's more, Simkins also was a cofounder and president of CENTCUSO and a charter board member of Card Services for Credit Unions (Certegy).

After leaving the industry for a few years to work for a financial management and consulting firm, he returned in 2002 as president/CEO of CORE Credit Union in Statesboro, Ga.

In addition to son, Paul Jr., Simkins is survived by his wife Martha Jo Simkins of Oviedo, Fla.; daughter, Natalie K. Fore; son, David Gregory Simkins; sisters, Loretta Lemieux, Madeline Thomas; seven grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren.

Visitation will be June 1, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Newcomer Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 895 S. Goldenrod Road in Orlando. Funeral services will be at University Carillon UMC, 1395 Campus View Court in Oviedo.

Instant Insights /

In Memoriam: Paul Simkins, Credit Union Pioneer

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