Michael Gesmundo didn”™t start out thinking about banking or running a golf course. He was an avid musician in his hometown of Connecticut, studying at the Julius Hartt Conservatory of Music in Hartford. Then he got a letter from Uncle Sam ”“ the kind most men in the 1960s dreaded receiving: a draft notice.
“I wanted to be a teacher and perform,” said Gesmundo, the new chairman of the board of Wallkill Federal Savings and Loan. “I studied with Doc Severinsen for two years and was deferred from the service because I was in school. But that all ended when school was over and the draft came calling.”
The Army had a place for Gesmundo because of his graduate degree from Hartt. After basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey, he was selected to play with West Point”™s military band and spent three years of his enlistment in the Hudson Valley.
As a trumpet player, Gesmundo recalled, he was called upon to play taps each evening ”“ and for other sadder occasions that came part and parcel with the Vietnam War.
Gesmundo said he is proud of the years spent as part of the then 220-member West Point Band and that he was one of the founding members of the military academy”™s Jazz Knights. (The West Point
Band is now down to 65 members and the Jazz Knights are still livening things up.)
Once out of the Army and back in civilian life, Gesmundo abandoned his original plans, taking his new wife from Newburgh up to Kingston, where the couple opened and managed the Kingston Music Center and School of Music. “We eventually had 550 kids a week ”“ it was a very credible store and school.”
After 13 years, Gesmundo was ready for a change and went back to school, this time for accounting. “I did that through the mail ”¦ no Internet back then. I had gotten into golf during my years in Kingston,” he said. That lead to a position with Bruedan Corp., which hired the musician-turned-golfer as its general manager. “My sales background led me to eventually (become) their executive vice president,” said Gesmundo, who helped grow the company”™s annual revenues from $6 million to $300 million. While with Bruedan, he helped set up another company called Golf Course Enterprises, where Gesmundo leased and operated both Grossinger”™s and Thomas Carvel golf courses.
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At age 65, Gesmundo is officially “retired” ”“ he serves on the Metropolitan Golf Association as a rules official and acts as an official scorer. He”™s president of the Osiris Golf Club where he plays regularly and volunteers on the Orange Lake Association. Now, he adds chairman of Wallkill Federal Savings and Loan to his list of responsibilities, replacing Howard Terwilliger, who retired earlier this year. Gesmundo does receive compensation for his position as board chairman but says it”™s not the money that keeps him actively engaged.
“I really love Wallkill Federal and Loan. We are a depositors”™ bank under a Federal charter, and many of our employees have been with us for decades. Success is measured by more than profitability ”“ it is how you are perceived by your community, by being reliable and providing great service ”“ that all goes into the mix.”
Gesmundo said Wallkill Federal”™s “claim to fame” is its residential mortgage department. “We hold most of our residential mortgages,” added Jack Edler, the bank”™s 23-year president.
The bank does its own appraisals and considers itself “hands-on,” said Gesmundo. “We know the community, and they know us.
“I was 36 years old when I was chosen for the board of directors, a ”˜youngster”™ compared to my colleagues.” Not only was he a young upstart, Gesmundo was a “city fella ”“ direct from Newburgh.”
It seems to have stuck, however. He has been with Wallkill Federal for 29 years, “and I”™m still the youngest member of the board.”
While other banks have mandatory retirement requirements, Wallkill Federal is not one of them. “I can serve as long as I”™m able and capable,” he said. “That is just one of the things I love about this bank.”
With $23 million in reserves and a health residential portfolio, Gesmundo said he expects Wallkill Federal Savings & Loan to remain status quo, something that seems to sit well with both the bank”™s board and its 6,600 depositors.
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