Forcht Bank's Hunley celebrates 50 years of service

By CHRIS HARRIS, CJ Staff Writer Commonwealth Journal

Somerset — A lot can happen in 50 years — and a lot can change.Yet Donna Hunley keeps right on plugging along.

A familiar face to many in Pulaski County — for more than one reason — Hunley is celebrating a full half a century in the banking business this summer. Over a span of decades, Hunley has been played a hand in helping Pulaskians reach their dreams while other institutions have come and gone around her.Hunley works in the area of loans, but when asked her official title, she responds, “Relationship Officer.” It’s an appropriate moniker, given the bonds Hunley has found herself developing with her clientele over the years.

“I just enjoy people,” she said, “and trying to help people.”It all began for Hunley in 1960. Following her graduation from the old Nancy High School in 1959, she started at a local financing company and moved on after about five years to First & Farmers Bank, a downtown Somerset institution. It wasn’t a career path Hunley had ever necessarily seen herself on.

“I’m one of those people who never went to college,” she said calling herself a product of “OJT” — on-the-job training.“It was a just a job opportunity at the time,” she continued. “I didn’t know I would continue on with it for 50 years.”

That she did. In the time since Hunley began her banking career, America saw the great strides of the Civil Rights movement under Martin Luther King Jr., the moon landing, disco fever, the dawning of the computer age, the economic boom of the ‘80s, and the tragedy of 9/11 — all with Hunley a comforting fixture within the local banking system.Hunley credits Sam Isaacs, who was a top official with First & Farmers and vice president over the loan department around the time Hunley arrived there, with playing a large part in her getting her start.

“Sam Isaacs was one of the elders at First & Farmers, and he approached me about coming to work for him,” said Hunley. “I worked as a loan clerk for him and later as a loan officer. I give him a lot of credit for my success.”The legacy she left at First & Farmers won’t soon be forgotten by those who knew her there. However, come the mid-’90s, Hunley saw that it might be time for a change.

“I had been with the other bank, and I felt like I’d accomplished my goal there,” she said. “When the group approached me, I decided that yes, I would talk to them.”That “group” which Hunley is referring to is the Forcht Group of Kentucky, a sort of commercial empire within the central and southeastern parts of the Commonwealth. Founded by Terry E. Forcht, the far-reaching enterprise maintains corporate headquarters in Lexington and Corbin, and has its successful hands in a number of different endeavors, ranging from print and radio media to health care to the insurance game, to construction and real estate, and of course, banks.

In 1997, the group decided to open a totally new bank here in Somerset (which at the time was called Somerset National Bank). Hunley found herself on the ground floor of the “exciting” project, one that she calls the most memorable experience of her banking career. “When I was hired here, I kept a log on seeing an empty lot to a building,” said Hunley, “and then to a business and to the growth that we still have.”

It wasn’t easy, Hunley noted, but she along with her Forcht Bank teammates invested a lot of time and energy into making the opportunity a reality.“We worked long hours, we did a lot of customer calling. We were out in the community for several months before we opened here,” she said. “We went out spreading the word, as the saying goes.”

In August of 1997, Somerset National Bank finally opened — and it was all worth it for Hunley.“They offered me an opportunity I couldn’t decline,” she said. “It was very exciting opening a bank. We had zero deposits, zero loans. We started from scratch.”

The loan demand at Forcht Bank is “still great,” said Hunley. She noted that she does more consumer loans than anything else — helping folks out with the money the need to make a big move in life.“There’s always someone trading automobiles and needing personal loans,” she said. “I do home loans, but as for business loans, I stick to the consumer.”

That may be because meeting the consumer face-to-face is what Hunley enjoys most about the job. It’s the personal touches — such as offering soft drinks to customers who may come in on a hot day, she noted — that keep people coming back to see her and others at Forcht Bank.“You become attached to (customers),” she said. “They will get a loan from you one year, and 99 percent of the time, they’ll come back. You bond with the customers and that gives you an opportunity to get their other financial needs by doing deposits, savings, certificates, and all different types of banking.

“I’ve been very lucky that I have a following of customers that do have other relationships with the bank,” she added. “That’s how we have succeeded — we do develop a relationship with our customer.”Hunley’s even had folks follow her from her old gig at First & Farmers to this bank, just so they can keep working with someone they know and trust. “The followers have been very good to me,” she said. “I am so thankful for my clients.”

It’s not all been easy going. In particular, the credit crunch that has been in so many headlines over the last year as been dire for many in the banking industry — and those they serve.“Economic times have changed,” said Hunley. “Rules and things in banking — that’s one of the downturns I have seen. It takes a toll on customers. It affects your business.”

That’s true not just at one particular banking company, but across the board in the industry. The fact that folks like Hunley have endured is a testament to the quality work they’ve provided over the years and the reputation that they’ve made for themselves.“Mr. Forcht has always been very supportive of me,” said Hunley. “I’ve very thankful. It’s been wonderful.”

Hunley has made efforts to pass on her success to others. For three years, Hunley awarded the Donna Hunley Prize in Banking, $1,000 in cash to a qualified individual within the banking system. A candidate was chosen from each banking market, and then narrowed down to the up-and-comer seen as most deserving.Maria Hopper, a training specialist at Forcht Bank in Somerset, was won of those winners. She gives Hunley a lot of credit for helping her get where she is today.

“(The award was about) trying to help us young (bank employees) going into the business,” she said. “Donna is wonderful.”Indeed, a tour of the Forcht Bank location on South U.S. 27, across from Wal-Mart, revealed a warm welcome and smiling face for Hunley at nearly every turn. Hunley has made as big an impact on her own co-workers as she has on the bank’s customers.

Mike Noftsger has been the market president at Forcht Bank in Somerset for only a year, but even he’s played witness to the relationships Hunley has developed with those around her.“You can tell how many people she knows in the community, because everyone that comes in wants to see Donna, or you see people out who ask how Donna’s doing,” said Noftsger. “When you’re in that field for that long, it’s evident that people know who she is, and that they like that she works here.”

Hunley is active in the community and has served on the Somerset City Council since 1993. She compared the process of building a bank from the ground up to helping grow and develop a community, as she does in her role on the council — plus, having such a keen financial mind never hurts when dealing with the city’s budget.Hunley and her husband Roy have a son, Patrick (married to Kim), and a granddaughter, Whitley. They’ll well-known in the local drag racing community, with both father and son having participated in it over the years.

“We’re a busy family,” she said.Hunley said she has no timetable on when she might finally give up the loan game for good — welcome news to all her friends and clients who enjoy speaking to her at Forcht Bank every day.

“As long as my health continues and I can be an asset to the bank, I’d like to continue working,” she said. “I’ve just always been in loans and have enjoyed it very much. I still do.”

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