90-year-old banker credits father's guidance in making decisions

Shortly after Harold Becker was made a full partner in his family's grocery business, he told his father, Orrie, that he had cancelled an order for a carload -- 400 cases -- of canned peaches to reorder them at a new lower price.

"He glared at me, pointed his finger and said 'Don't ever let me hear you say anything like that again,'" Becker recounts in his book, "Building Trust: My Life Journey."

"Did you order those peaches?" Orrie Becker asked his son.

When Harold Becker replied that he had, Orrie Becker told him, "Then they are your peaches. You own them. You take the loss.

"You are to be a man of your word. Let your word be your bond and never go back on your word, even if it costs you money.'"

In a recent interview, Becker, 90, chairman of Guaranty Bank and Trust Co., said the lesson is one of many learned from his father that continues to influence his decisions as well as the conduct of bank employees.

"My dad had a standard clause and I still use it in the bank today -- 'Your first loss is your cheapest loss,'" Becker said. "When the bananas start turning black or something doesn't quite look right in the produce department, get rid of it.

"We have the same feeling about a bad loan at the bank, which we rarely do. Mark it down, don't look back and move on."

Becker, who still comes to his office every day, said he has a philosophy of never looking back and second-guessing a decision. It may stem from a land purchase that he and his father made in the early 1950s.

The tract of land at First Avenue and about 37th Street Drive SE sloped down from First Avenue and did not appear to offer opportunities for commercial development. The Beckers bought it for $9,500 with the belief that they use it for a grocery store location if they couldn't eventually sell it.

Numerous attempts to sell the land failed.

About three years later, Harold Becker, as he was working in one of the family grocery stores, was approached by an overall-clad man. The man offered to buy the land for $12,500 - $5,000 now and the remainder to be paid over time.

The buyer - he's never named in Becker's “Building Trust” - owned a bulldozer, which he used to level out the land and prepare it for rezoning and potential sale. He leased a corner for a service station and sold the remainder to Martin and Matthew Bucksbaum for $100,000, where they developed Town & Country Shopping Center.

While Orrie Becker's business cronies teased him about making a $3,000 profit instead of $100,000 if he had held onto the land, the elder Becker did not begrudge the new owner a higher profit because he had worked hard to improve the land.

"The farmer deserved a profit for his labor and creativity," Harold Becker said. "We made our profit and he made his."

He bought his first Guaranty Bank stock in 1948 at the age of 26 - his father had been a charter stock holder. Harold became majority owner and chairman in 1969.

Guaranty, with offices in Cedar Rapids, Marion and Fairfax, boasted assets of $237.9 million as of Dec. 31, 2011. Harold's son Robert is chief executive officer.

Over the years he's been a board member for Mount Mercy College and the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. He served as president of the Greater Downtown Association and the Cedar Rapids Symphony Association and was named to the Junior Achievement Business Hall of Fame.

While technology has greatly changed the way banking is conducted since he went to work in the industry, Becker said it will likely remain a "people" and relationship business for many years to come.

"I think people still want to communicate," he said. "If I have a problem, I want to talk with somebody."

While many of his banking and business contemporaries have retired, Becker enjoys coming to the office each day and remaining active - he usually works from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

"I don't feel any different today than I did when I was 20 or 25," he said. "I can't do the things physically that I did when I was 20 or 25, but I still want to getup and go.

"My wife, Dianne, says the day I don't go to work, she will put me in a wheelbarrow and wheel me down here. My wife doesn't want me at home and I don't want to stay home all day.

"I would go nuts."