TowneBank Executive Chairman with President Jeff

At the Rotary Club of Norfolk’s January 9, 2023 meeting, Rotarian Linwood Beckner introduced G. Robert Aston, the featured speaker, as being No. 1 on the club Speaker Committee’s wish list.

Aston, co-founder and executive chairman of TowneBank, then captivated the audience with stories about his career and the banking industry in Hampton Roads. Aston had just graduated from Cradock High School in 1964 when he started working at a bank in his Portsmouth hometown. He earned $1.15 an hour doing whatever was needed and worked his way up to head community banks in an era when he says “bankers liked each other” and saw themselves as being “in the public service business.”

In the early 1990s, bank mergers swallowed up area banks and the sense of community disappeared leading Aston to quit his job and huddle with two other area bank executives in his garage in 1998 to create a new Hampton Roads community bank. Their goal was to start a broad-based bank that would “serve a greater purpose” than making money. “When you have a purpose bigger than you, then you do what you do for the love of it,’ Aston explained. 

TowneBank started out 25 years ago with three employees and 4,000 stockholders who anted up $50 million and all became customers. Today, it has $17 billion in assets and 40 branches in Virginia and North Carolina. It has the country’s second-largest, bank-owned insurance company, is a partner in a real estate company, has a resort management affiliate, and employs 2,400 people in Hampton Roads. Aston is proud of TowneBank’s community support, which has provided more than $100 million in donations to all kinds of nonprofits in the communities the bank serves. 

Aston says TowneBank’s strategy has always been “to be nice to people, create a strong sense of belonging, build a culture of caring, and surround itself with people who are givers and not takers.” Those core values have helped TowneBank continually gain new customers and bigger market share. 

The Meeting

We celebrated January birthdays: Collins Gooch, Hank Thompson, Greg Bockheim, Ann Baldwin, Paul Sykes and Linda Archer. 

We celebrated Rotary anniversaries for: Bill Jonak (74 years), Chick Robison (48), Jim Baker (47), Chip Vogan (47), Dave Duncan (44), Bob Ash (41), Rob Sult (28), Joe Massey (26), Marcia Conston (4), Kay Stine (2), and John Miller (2). 

Guests were Ina Diepold, who recently moved from Germany;  Brenda Garrett of Horizons Hampton Roads; Amy Stevens, friend of Laurie Harrison, and 

Joey Weinberg of Towne Wealth Management and son-in-law of Linwood Beckner.

Ben Mason reported that both Joe Massey and Rob Sult are recuperating at home. 

President Jeff Wells reminded members that meetings are now being live streamed to keep those who can’t attend in the loop. He also announced Saturday’s new member orientation at Pam Tubbs’ home at 10:30 a.m. 

Chip Vogan encouraged members to come next Tuesday to hear his Davidson College classmate, Judge Victor Flemming, talk about how he creates crossword puzzles for the Rotary magazine and other publications. Flemming will do his program via Zoom since he is in Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Happy Bucks & Fines

President Jeff reminded members to say their names before giving their announcements to help the Rotary reporters be accurate and also to help members to know each other better. Making announcements and donating to charity were:

• Dave Charney for the University of Michigan winning the college football title.
• Barbara Lipskis for safe travels to and from Montana to be with family. 
• Ralph Peter for getting to extend his time with NATO in our area and for his plans to participate in the Polar Plunge to raise money for Special Olympics. 
• Marty Raiss for her family getting through the holidays with no illness. 
• Pam Tubbs for forgetting her Rotary pin. 
• Armistead Williams for getting over Covid and having hand surgery. 
• Jeff Wells for celebrating the lives well lived of two friends who recently passed away.