VISTA Today asks Rick Weber, Managing Director of DNB First Wealth Management, about growing up in Connecticut where he palled around with IBM’s chairman’s son, developing a competitive nature and love of golf carrying two golf bags for 72 holes on weekends at the local country club, hitchhiking to Florida and then to Woodstock (yes, that Woodstock!) the summer between high school and college, meeting his wife of 44 years on the beach that same summer, joining what became Meridian Bank in Reading at the urging of his father-in-law, being recruited to DNB First by Bill Latoff and Bill Heib in 2008, his love of community banking and the best piece of advice he received from Gene Sarazen, the 2nd winner of The Masters.

Where did you grow up, Rick?

I was born in Norwalk in the southwest corner of Connecticut, the second of six children.  My mother was Irish-Italian, and my father was German.  He wanted one kid, she wanted twelve; so they split the difference.

We lived in Norwalk and New Canaan until I was four when we moved to Darien, a few miles south on Route 95 towards New York City. My father was in the furniture business. While my mother passed away when she was sixty, my father is still alive and going strong at ninety-two!

What memories do you have of growing up in Darien?

We grew up on the modest side in an affluent New York City suburb. I had the opportunity to do all sorts of outdoor activities including playing hockey on open ponds with some pretty well-heeled kids.

One of my skating buddies was the son of IBM’s chairman. I didn’t realize who his dad was until college when I took a business course and saw his father’s picture on the front page of a business periodical.

I have great memories of waking up very early during summer vacation, working through the morning and hitchhiking to a friend’s house in the afternoon where we would swim in his pool and take his motorboat out onto Long Island Sound.

My dad used to take my brothers and me swimming at the beaches in Darien and to New York Yankees games. I went to my first Yankee game in 1958 when I was seven years old and continued going with my father until I was a teenager and decided it wasn’t cool to go to games with Dad anymore. I saw all the stars play – Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Roger Maris and many more. I remain a Yankees fan to this day (and yes I know that doesn’t play well in Southeast Pennsylvania).

The thing I remember most about my childhood and teenage years is the freedom and independence my parents gave me. On Saturday mornings, my mother would push me out the door at 7:30 and tell me to be home for dinner at 6:00.

When I was a kid, I rode my bike everywhere until I became a teenager and then started hitchhiking whenever I wanted to get somewhere.  The one thing my father always reminded me of was to never get out of line with the law. Almost anything else was fair game. I respected my father’s trust in me to do the right thing

What jobs did you have growing up?

Like every kid, I tried my hand at a newspaper route, mowed lawns, and shoveled snow. My favorite job was the eight years I spent caddying at Woodway Country Club in Darien. That job gave me an opportunity to meet many successful people, develop my communication skills, save for college, and, most importantly, learn to play golf, which I still play today.

I played a lot of competitive golf at a very “amateur” level, once achieving a two-handicap and winning the club championship a couple of times at Kennett Square Country Club back in the early 90’s. Besides my wife, my four kids and my three grandchildren, golf has been the greatest joy of my life.

Besides learning to play golf, what lessons did you take away from your time caddying?

I developed a pretty disciplined work ethic, learned how to communicate with corporate executives and, through playing golf, to be competitive in a gentlemanly way.

On most weekends I walked 72 holes with about 80 pounds on my shoulders. That helped you stay focused and learn how to persevere. I did have the honor of caddying for several golf professionals including Gary Player, Bruce Crampton and Gene Sarazen.

I also learned that if I volunteered, people would recognize and reward me for going the extra mile. Whenever the Caddy Master needed someone to wash golf clubs, I was the first one there. I didn’t get paid for cleaning those clubs, but I learned that going the extra mile would position me for more opportunity.

I learned a lot about life in that caddy yard at Woodway CC. People often talk about the life lessons they learned on the school bus. While true, working in the caddy yard was like being on the school bus on steroids!

You mentioned bike riding and hitchhiking a moment ago.  Where is the furthest or most interesting place you went on your bike or with your thumb?

I actually thought I could ride my bike to Candlewood Lake in Danbury, CT, a trip of about 30+ miles. I didn’t make it halfway.

Hitchhiking is another story.  When I was seventeen and in my senior year of high school, five buddies and I hitched from Washington, DC to Fort Lauderdale Florida for Spring Break. Fortunately, I was able to fly home.

Four months later that same group of guys and I hitchhiked to the Woodstock Music Festival in Bethel, New York and after 3+ days of music I turned around and hitchhiked home.

You were at Woodstock?

Yeah, I was there! Through most of my high school years I was a drummer in a band. I was really into music. I remember listening to WABC and WMCA radio out of New York City and hearing about this concert in upstate New York. For two or three months solid it seemed that was all Cousin Brucie and the other radio disc jockeys talked about.

The date of the concert was three weeks before college started and I lived only 50 miles away from the concert location. I paid $25 for a three-day pass which I ended up ripping up when the concert promoters declared the concert open and free on Friday early in the evening. Out of the 500,000+ in attendance, I bet I was one of 20,000 who actually paid!!

Describe your Woodstock experience, Rick.

It was an amazing experience for an eighteen-year-old. I still remember watching Richie Havens and Joan Baez perform and hearing Crosby Stills & Nash sing Sweet Judy Blue Eyes for the first time in front of an audience of any real size.

On Friday evening the skies opened up, and it poured. Most of the crowd disbursed but we stayed and worked our way down to the very front where we listened to Arlo Guthrie perform Alice’s Restaurant.  We got quite muddy and stayed muddied all weekend. From Santana to Blood Sweat & Tears to Jimi Hendricks the great music of the 60’s just kept on coming!

I recall Creedence Clearwater Revival waking me and several hundred thousand others up at 1:00 AM or so on Sunday morning to Born On The Bayou and then seeing The Who perform Pinball Wizard as the sun just started to rise behind the stage.

I obviously witnessed a lot and slept very little.  The one thing I’ll never forget is how peaceful the crowd was. My Woodstock experience was truly special.

Another special event in my life happened three days before I left for Woodstock when I met a girl named Chris Garr at the beach in Darien. We went to the same high school (she was a year behind me at Darien High School) and I knew of her but we didn’t run in the same circles.

I didn’t see her again until four months later at my first college semester break. I called her on Christmas Eve and we went out for the first time on Christmas night, 1969.

On May 27^th we celebrated our 44^th wedding anniversary. She’s an amazing wife, mother of four, grandmother of three, and a true life partner who has probably put up with way too much of me!

Where did you go to college Rick?

Since I was paying my way through college, I combined a couple of grants, scholarships and student loans with my savings and went to Central Connecticut State College outside of Hartford, CT. It was a solid school and affordable. My goal was to become a history professor but I ended up changing my major to Political Science, with a minor in History, with the hope of going to law school.

How did you end up in banking?

My father-in-law suggested that instead of waiting around to get into law school that I get a job with a local community bank named American Bank based in Reading. When I joined them in June of 1973, the bank had $500 Million in assets. Twenty-two years later when I left, not only had we changed our name to Meridian Bank, but we had grown to $17+ Billion in assets.  Meridian Bank was a tremendous company to grow up professionally with and to work for!

What did you do for Meridian?

When I started with American Bank I thought I would work for six months until I got accepted at a law school. Within 3 months opportunities opened up for me and I was enjoying banking. I decided to stay as long as I was enjoying myself and I saw future career growth. When Sam McCullough came over from Mellon Bank in 1976 to become CEO/President of American Bank, the bank really started to move forward acquiring a number of banks. Along with this came more opportunities.

I happened to be in the right place at the right time. As it turned out, I was at the right age, had the right work ethic, people skills and could play a decent round of customer golf.

With some great mentors, at the age of 28 I became VP of Corporate Banking, at 30 I was a Regional VP for the Lehigh Valley, at 32 SVP and Director of Marketing, at 35 Director of Consumer Market Management, then EVP of Retail Banking and Credit Card Services at Delaware Trust Company (a subsidiary of Meridian Bancorp).

In 1992, while working at Delaware Trust Company my boss invited me to take an open position in Personal Trust in Meridian Bancorp’s Asset Management subsidiary.  He foresaw that fee income would become an important revenue element in banking down the road. At the time I had no working experience in the personal trust and investment field but, with the help of some very sharp people within this business unit, I learned and decided that this was the direction I wanted to take my career.

Three years later I left Meridian and joined Cannon Financial Institute, moving my family from Chadds Ford, PA to Athens, Georgia. Cannon was the premier training/consulting company for advisors working in the trust and investment industry. I flew around the country working for companies like Wells Fargo, Banc One, Wachovia and the like.

After two plus years of missing my kids growing up, National City Bank offered me a position running their wealth management group at their headquarters in Cleveland.

Four years later I moved to Comerica Bank running their Investment Management & Trust group in Michigan and then to Fifth Third Bank as Managing Director of Investment Advisors.

How did you end up at DNB First?

In 2008 I left Fifth Third Bank, returning to Chester County and re-engaged with Cannon Financial Institute, my old employer in Georgia. A friend of a friend of a friend told me about a banker named Bill Latoff who was looking to grow the Trust Department at DNB First.

I met with Bill Latoff and Bill Hieb, DNB First’s then President, two or three times to discuss the possibility of me coming on board. In the end they committed that I would have what I needed to build a true wealth management program and I decided to sign on. I reported to Bill Hieb then and still do.

What is it about community banking that you like so much?

I love the fact that I get to see the impact my team has on DNB First’s earnings, stock price and brand.  You don’t get to experience that same sense of ownership, teamwork and camaraderie at a  multi-billion dollar asset financial institution. In addition I know almost everyone by name at DNB First. That is as important to me now as it was when I was at American/Meridian Bank.

Another important thing that I appreciate about DNB First is that everyone is involved in the community. You’ll find DNB First employees on numerous nonprofit boards and/or serving as volunteers in their local communities. I just love that.  I’m currently involved with Church Farm School in Exton and Friends Association for the Care and Protection of Children in West Chester. It’s a part of who I am.

How many are in the wealth management division at DNB First Rick?

Including me, there are nine of us. We haven’t had employee turnover for four straight years which is rare for the wealth management industry. Together, the team has generated double-digit growth for four consecutive years.

What are your biggest challenges and opportunities as you look into the rest of the year?

Personally, when I joined DNB First six years ago I promised Bill Latoff and Bill Hieb that with the right additional professionals and technology investment we would create something even more special than what they had at the time.  Because of the commitment of each of my team members I believe we have been able to deliver on that promise.

Professionally, wealth management is all about effective branding.  When I joined DNB First, DNB Advisors (what it was called back then) wasn’t getting the traction that management wanted. After revamping the business model and adding a number of key team members we are now producing the financial trajectory management was looking for. Getting our brand out in a very competitive market with a multitude of wealth management advisors is our biggest challenge.

Several years ago we put together an advisory board that includes some of the top estate planning attorneys and a CPA, all from Chester County.  That board helps to provide guidance and promote DNB First Wealth Management. They help to extend our brand in the marketplace and have been invaluable to our success.

It’s certainly a competitive business, and that’s alright.  I’m a competitor and, like my team members, I enjoy competing.

I also like what DNB First is doing to extend the DNB First brand across the region.  Events like sponsoring the high profile Devon Horse Show and putting on economic and investment seminars advance our brand and enhances our credibility.

In a sentence or two, how would you define the DNB First Wealth Management brand?  

We are a comprehensive provider of financial advice offering an outstanding client experience. The client experience we have built and maintain allows us to retain 99 percent of our clients, which is as much as five percentage points above the industry average. There are a lot of smart, credentialed professionals in our industry.  What we believe differentiates us from our competitors is the deep, long term relationships we build with our clients and the flexibility a boutique like group, such as DNB First Wealth Management, can offer.

Finally Rick, what is the best piece of advice you ever received?

When I was seventeen years old and caddying for Gene Sarazen, the golfer who hit “the shot heard ’round the world” to win the 1935 Masters Tournament, he told me jokingly “to get a haircut”. I will never forget that moment!

Seriously though, my grandfather, who was as Irish as Irish can be, lived with us when I was a young teenager.  His work ethic, his ethnic pride, the stories he told me and my brothers and just the way he carried himself made a big impression on me.  Living my life with integrity was the life lesson he gave me. That may sound corny, but it’s something I cherish.  I wake up every morning with my principles intact and that is not a bad way to face each day.