December 07, 1981 – Regina, Saskatchewan
In 1981, the equipment leasing company I was working for merged with The Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. As a consequence, I spent five long years as a banker.
The similarities between CIBC Vice President Hogan and JP Morgan were astounding.
CIBC had not been in the equipment leasing business until the acquisition, and I was the sole employee in Regina. By default, I became the Leasing Department Head.
As a department head, I was expected to attend weekly management meetings held in the Vice-President’s boardroom. At 26, I was the youngest member of the management team, by about 25 years. The weekly meetings were intimidating, but highly educational experiences.
At the first meeting I was seated next to Mr. Wilson, a surly man who headed the Credit and Collections Department. When VP Hogan arrived, he looked at Mr. Wilson and said, “I didn’t realize it was ‘bring your kid to work day”. The comment met with as much mirth as is possible in a boardroom full of bankers, nine sniggers and a guffaw. I was the guffaw.
As VP Hogan seated himself, he looked directly at me and winked. The corner of his gigantic moustache twitched with what I could only imagine was a banker’s hidden smile. The wink and the twitch were enough to settle my discomfort and we set about discussing bank business.
I never totally relaxed during Department meetings at CIBC, but I grew to enjoy VP Hogan’s anecdotes. He was generally focused on business, but he injected some interest into every meeting by telling bank history stories. Here are a few:
Hogan was stationed in Winnipeg at the old Imperial Bank of Canada building on Portage and Main in the 1950s. In those days the manager lived above the bank and was issued a shotgun.
The Manager’s bedroom was located above the vault and there was a trap door under the bed. If robbers were attempting to open the vault, it was the manager’s duty to defend the bank by shooting them through the hatch. Someone in the group asked Hogan if he ever had an opportunity to use the gun. He said that he hadn’t, “but if they had tried, I would have shot the bastards”.
I have no doubt that he would have.
At one meeting, Hogan told us that during the 1930s the Bank of Commerce in Saskatchewan had a problem with two-dollar bills. The “deuce” was the currency of choice for hookers in Moose Jaw at the time. Many men used them but didn’t want to advertise that they carried the bills. Some women earned their living with the two-dollar bill as currency, while other women wouldn’t be caught dead with one in their purse.
The wild west ended in Saskatchewan when handguns were removed from bank branches in the 1960s.
Hogan told the story of how two young Bank of Montreal employees borrowed a handgun, like the one on the left, from a Regina branch one Sunday afternoon. The two were doing some target practice outside city limits and one accidentally shot the other.
“The teller recovered”, Hogan said, “but we had to get rid of the guns”.
I don’t miss much about being a banker, but I would sit through dozens more department meetings if VP Hogan was still …
… calling the shots.
Janis Condon
I also remember those weekly CIBC management meetings in the early 80’s, mine being in Hamilton where I was the youngish regional leasing manager. I still lived in Toronto so had to race down the Don Valley, across the Gardner Expressway, and out the QEW to Hamilton for an 8 am meeting, where, if you were not seated when the VP arrived, the door was closed and you could not enter.
Just a little intimidating!! Russ, that is when we first met.
Russ
A long time ago! Those meetings obviously made an impression on both of us. I don’t miss the rat-race, but I do miss a lot of fine people, like you! Happy Trails…
GG
I wonder what Mr. Hogan would think of the masking mandate, good job the guns have gone!
Russ
Thank You, it was a different era