Bill Burke: The People’s Banker

Irish Voice News

Bill Burke: The People’s Banker

July 4, 2007

By April Drew.

“I WAS 20 years of age. I stood outside the building. I heard the church bells ring. I knew it was 8 a.m. so I went into the guy at the desk and I gave him the envelope.”

This is the beginning of how William (Bill) Burke became the master of his own destiny.

It was a destiny that led him to become the president of Country Bank, a financial institution that boasts an Irish-born clientele of 50%. Burke, a native of Co. Sligo, has also been one of the outstanding leaders in the Irish American community for over three decades.

Throw a stone in Manhattan and chances are you will hit an Irish business that Bill Burke helped finance and set up. He is that legendary old style banker, one who does deals on trust and his intimate knowledge of the community he has served for decades.

A Bill Burke handshake is as good as a signed contract. Thousands of small business owners over the years have come to know him as banker, but also as friend. “If Bill Burke didn’t exist we’d have to invent him,” says one community leader.

So how did that 20-year-old become President of a bank and a leader of his community, including becoming grand marshal of the New York City St. Patrick’s Day Parade?

The story begins in 1942. Burke was born in Tubbercurry, a small town in Co. Sligo. He was one of 11 children.

When he turned 18 he felt there was very little future for him in Ireland. His father encouraged him to join the family garage business, but this didn’t interest Burke so he boarded a plane for JFK and the Big Apple.

“As soon as I got the leaving certificate , I was out of there,” he remembers in an interview with the Irish Voice last week.

A few days off the boat and Burke was helping his sister bring shirts into a Chinese laundry when a guy in the store asked her who was her companion.

“When she told him he asked me what would I work at? I said I would do anything. The guy said to come see him on Monday and he’d give me a job.”

Burke explained that this gentleman turned out to be an executive of a bank and was helping his parents that weekend in their laundry. “I went in that Monday, and before I knew it I had a job in the operations department of Franklin National Bank,” he recalls.

Not having a notion about the banking world, Burke rolled up his sleeves and got to work. “I was a quick learner and really enjoyed this new world.”

After successfully hacking through the thicket of rhetoric and facts about the banking world, Burke was offered a place on the bank’s executive training program.

During this program Burke got a call from the gentleman who was over the national division of Franklin at the time. “I went down to his office and he asked me would I mind bringing an envelope up to Boston the next morning. I said sure,” Burke says.

“He gave me a plane ticket and told me it was very important that I was there at 8 a.m. to give the package in. I got up early, rushed over to La Guardia, arrived in Logan, got a taxi into Boston and waited outside the door until 8 a.m.”

Burke, however, wasn’t aware that he was in the middle of a tax evasion case. “I gave the guy behind the counter the envelope and said I was from Franklin National Bank. I was about to leave when a man arrived out from a back room and said, ‘Hello.’

“He looked at me directly and asked me, ‘What’s the story?’ I said I was on my way back to New York. He said, ‘No you’re not. You’re a witness in a tax evasion case this morning.’”

Burke was dumbfounded. He told the gentleman standing beside him that he had no idea what he was talking about and didn’t know anything about the contents of the envelope.

“He said, ‘If you leave I’ll have to hold you in contempt of court.’ I agreed to stay and for the next two hours two guys went though the package explaining in detail its contents.”

At two o’clock Burke stood on the witness stand in court and answered all the questions he was asked. After the trial had finished the prosecutor took Burke aside and said, “Thank you very much. I think you won the case for us and I’ll tell you why. The defense attorney abused you and the jury was an old Irish jury and they don’t like their own being abused.”

It was this act of courage, and a sprinkle of Burke’s Irish charm, at the young age of 20 that got Burke a promotion to assistant vice president at Franklin.

Some years later, Burke capitalized on another opportunity and transferred to Barclays Bank where he took up a more senior position.

“I was a key guy at an American bank (Franklin), and then I went in as a full vice president to Barclays,” said Burke proudly.

He spent a few years with Barclays and in 1977 the Bank of Ireland, which had offices in New York, decided to open up a branch in Manhattan on Fifth Avenue. Burke was persuaded to head up the challenge.

“I accepted the offer. It was great working with Irish people,” he says.

Burke became one of the best known faces in the community, and when elected grand marshal of the New York parade in 1988 he proudly led hundreds of thousands up Fifth Avenue while proud relatives and family looked on.

“A thrill of a lifetime” he says.

However, after a number of years fear of instability in the banking industry took over, so like many businesses at the time Bank of Ireland closed down shop in Manhattan.

During the last few months at Bank of Ireland, Burke met with majority shareholder of Country Bank Joe Murphy.

“He said, ‘I hear your bank is closing up. How would you like to come to work for my bank?’ I said, ‘Where is it,’ and he said ‘Carmel,’ and I said, ‘Oh yes, I would love to go to work in California.’”

Unfortunately for Burke the Carmel Murphy was referring to was in upstate New York. “He wanted me to go from midtown Manhattan to upstate New York but at the time beggars couldn’t be choosers,” Burke recalls.

Burke suddenly realized that Country Bank was for him. “I really liked their approach and knew I’d fit in immediately.”

It wasn’t long before Burke was opening up branches in White Plains, Woodlawn, Scarsdale and Manhattan. “It’s the fastest growing small bank in the nation, and we are not pushing it to be,” described Burke.

Today Burke, 65, proudly sits in the president’s chair at Country Bank’s head office on Park Avenue. Burke boasts that most young Irish who want to set up their own business come to him for advice, and more often than not a loan.

“If you walked in here to this office you would probably walk out the door again in half an hour with a check in your hand. We are very good at it because we make quick decisions,” he says.

Burke, who said he enjoys talking to people, especially Irish people added, “I deal with the Irish a lot and we talk the same language. If someone is coming to me we have a chat, and 90% of the time we get it done.”

Burke admits Country Bank’s branch in Woodlawn is seeing a lot of younger Irish closing their accounts and going home.

“It’s a pity to lose the Irish. I can’t see people coming to New York anymore because things in Ireland are so good at the moment,” he feels.

When asked what advice he would give young people starting out in a career or setting up a business Burke said, “I found out that you can be extremely successful if you are completely dedicated and your company can rely and depend on you all the time. Don’t be calling out sick either.”

He continued, “If you want to set up a business the ideal situation would be to have an account with a small bank like us so you are able to meet the decision makers like the president, the chairman. We try to never let our depositors down.

“Go prepared and go directly to the decision maker. Make sure you put all your money in that bank so you walk in with the power and the plan,” he said, revealing that a new trend is Irish-born women a opening up restaurants all over New York, and that he has helped them get on their feet.

Burke and his wife Aileen, who reside in New Rochelle, have two children together. He has another four from a previous marriage, his first wife having passed on.

The family enjoys a few weeks vacation every year in Skibbereen, Co. Cork. While in Ireland Burke goes back to his hometown of Tubbercurry to visit his siblings.

Two years ago Burke went to visit his brother with Alzheimer’s, who died recently, in a nursing home. “My brother would tap everyone on the shoulder and say, ‘Do you know who this man is? He was the grand marshal of the St. Patrick’s Day parade and not only that but he is the president of a bank.’

“I was enjoying this and the various compliments and then he comes to a guy and said, ‘Do you know who this man is?’ The man turned around and said ‘No, but tell him to go to the front desk and they’ll tell him who he is.’”

Bill Burke will never need that question asked in Irish circles in New York. Quite simply, everyone knows.

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