Vernon "Vern" Elliott, a retired U.S. Marine Corps captain and longtime supporter of the credit union movement, died on March 2 at the age of 88, according to an announcement released last week.
Elliott began working with credit unions while serving in the United States Marine Corps at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, where he volunteered with Marine Credit Union. This led to a second career in the credit union industry that spanned more than 35 years.
After retiring from the Marine Corps, Elliott served as a branch manager at San Diego County Credit Union ($9.2 billion, San Diego) and later held leadership roles including COO at Western Federal Credit Union (now the $4.3 billion, Allen, Texas-based Unify Financial Credit Union) and president/CEO at Tiger Federal Credit Union (now the $6.5 billion, Manhattan Beach, Calif.-based Kinecta Federal Credit Union), Raincross Credit Union (now the $2.5 billion, Riverside, Calif.-based Altura Credit Union) and OCHA (now Pacific Community). Elliott was a volunteer and board member of CO-OP (now Velera). He also helped form and later served in governance roles with the Financial Service Centers Cooperative (FSCC), which expanded shared branching for credit union members nationwide.
Elliott also served on the credit committee of WesCorp Federal Credit Union and later as a member and chairman of the WesCorp board. He also served on the board of the California Credit Union League and later as a director on the board for CUNA (now America's Credit Unions).
After retiring from executive roles, Elliott continued working with credit unions, including assisting institutions facing challenges and supporting auditing firms. Within his community, Eliott volunteered as a Boy Scout sponsor, and served as a referee and judge in youth sports and as a judge at dog show events. Elliott received several honors, including the Unsung Hero Award in 2013 and the Leo H. Shapiro Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014.
Elliott is survived by his wife, Marilynn; daughters Michelle (Forrest "Chip") English and Courtnay Lynch; grandchildren Brandon English, Michael English, Carrigan Cueva and Samantha Baczek; and great-grandchildren Maverick Owen Baczek and Rowan Elliot Baczek.
His daughter Courtnay is continuing his legacy of serving the credit union industry and is currently vice president, people and culture for Valley First Credit Union ($1 billion, Modesto, Calif.).
Joyce Moed can be reached at joyce.moed@arc-network.com.
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