Profile: Dean Wegenast

By: Stephany Wegenast

 

State Bank and Trust is a well known bank that has over 500 employees and even more customers. With multiple locations in the Midwest this bank is the number one choice for most people. With good service, smiles, free checks and free cookies their isn’t a reason why this wouldn’t be the case.

Today, Dean Wegenast is a 73 year old, retired State Bank and Trust man. Although, he is retired he is still the secretary of the board of directors although he only attends board meetings now and is in active. He says that the most significant thing he did in life was, besides marrying his wife was,  “working for a brand new bank not know whether it was going to be successful or not and not knowing if I was going to have a job or not. I am proud of how the bank grew from nothing to where it is today.”  The uncertainty was their but he stuck with it showing his perseverance.

His first job in Fargo was at a one man office insurance agency. In time the insurance agency through a set of circumstances and happenings changed from an insurance company to a trust company which later evolved in to the State Bank and Trust bank. After explaining it he says, “so that’s how I got into the bank. I was just in the right place at the right time. There were a few years there that I didn’t know if I was going to have a job the next month.” His life then evolved along with the bank. His wife Gail had to say that he has, “very good work ethic. He really likes to do things himself, and he had a hard time designating people to certain jobs.”

  Dean’s position on the board was that of the secretary to the board of directors of the bank and the secretary to the bank itself. Both are important jobs for a single person to hold. It shows that, that person has experience and advice that needs to taken into account. When asked why he stayed on the board Dean Responded, “I enjoy it, it keeps me informed on what’s going on and there are still people that I hired working there.” Today, Dean and his wife Gail, like many retired couples retire somewhere warm during the winter months. They chose Fort Myers, Florida as their winter location from mid December to mid May. On the second Wednesday of every month, between December and May, Dean flies in to Hector international Airport in order to attend board meetings until early Sunday morning when he flies back to Fort Myers to escape the cold North Dakota weather.