Riverside Bank president retiring
Bankers come and bankers go, but one many will miss in the mid-Hudson Valley is Dave MacFarland, who”™ll be retiring July 1 as president and CEO of Riverside Bank.
He has spent 48 years in his industry after graduating from Orange Community College, starting out in the mailroom of Highland-Quassaick National Bank in his hometown of Newburgh. “They eventually dropped Quassaick from the name, because no one could pronounce it,” MacFarland joked.
Banks changed names and changed hands ”“ something that has not changed in the world of finance ”“ and MacFarland rose through the ranks, spending the bulk of his career with Fleet, which merged with Bank of America. In 1999, McFarland was asked to come on board a new commercial bank that was being formed. He became Riverside Bank”™s first president in 2000.
“I truly enjoy having a personal relationship with each customer,” he said. “I like the fact they can call and say, ”˜Let me speak to Dave,”™ and get put through to the bank”™s president. It”™s a good feeling for the customer, too.” That was the mission of its founders when Riverside Bank was formed. Under MacFarland”™s tenure, it hasn”™t strayed from the formula.
The closely held bank, with assets of $180 million, has four branches employing 44 people and has continued to be recognized for its stability, earning its 14th five-star rating from Bauer Financial in July 2010.
The bank has also weathered the storm of the Great Recession.
“The tragedy of this financial crash, which is in no hurry to begin to truly recover, was to see many of our longtime customers with solid businesses and good business practices so deeply hurt. Because we are a small commercial bank, we worked with each one struggling to stay afloat in ways that a bigger bank can”™t,” he said. “We have rode the wave of the crash with our customers and continue to work with them.”
John Davies, Riverside”™s executive vice president, will be sitting in MacFarland”™s office in six more weeks. The two bankers first met in 1996. “We enjoyed a very good relationship ”“ John”™s got exceptional expertise in credit ”“ and when he joined Riverside in 2006, he was the person I envisioned taking my place.”
The career banker, who has been a member of many of the mid-Hudson”™s largest nonprofit boards, said his proudest achievements have been for hiring decisions he”™s made while involved with the nonprofit community: Â John D”™Ambrosio, president of the Orange County Chamber of Commerce; Charlie North, president of the Dutchess County Chamber of Commerce; Maureen Halahan, president of Orange County Partnership; and Jonathan Drapkin, president of Pattern for Progress.
MacFarland and his wife of 45 years, Bevalie, are in the snowbird mode, but the Newburgh native intends to remain active with a few of the nonprofits on his long list, particularly Pattern for Progress. He also intends to stay involved with promoting Stewart International Airport, which he believes will be the anchor of the region”™s business community. “It will take time, but I have great faith in its ability to help the region grow.”
For the city of Newburgh where he grew up, graduated from Newburgh Free Academy and got his first job, he hopes to see it become the All-American city it once was.
“We saw what Rudolph Giuliani did for Manhattan,” MacFarland said. “It”™s a pleasure to visit the city now. I hope to see Newburgh enjoy the same kind of renaissance ”“ it”™s more than overdue. This economy is making it all the more tougher on a city that”™s been through the mill.”
***
A farewell party for MacFarland will be held June 28, 5:30 p.m. at Anthony”™s Pier 9. MacFarland has asked for the net proceeds of the event be divided between the Dutchess County and Orange County chambers of commerce.