Kathy Klasen retires after 40 years of service in the banking industry
Wed, 05/29/2019 - 12:15pm
admin
Kathy retired after serving 40 years at the Clearbrook bank. She wanted to retire quietly, with little fanfare, but her colleagues convinced her to have a small celebration at the bank.
When Kathy was asked if she had any “stories” to tell about her time working at the bank, she shared she will always remember the time when Brad Eck, former President, accidentally locked her in the vault at closing time. Lucky for her, one of the walls was not cement and Brad heard her hollering before he departed for the evening.
Kathy also shared another memorable event about a bank robbery in the early 1980’s. A robber came into the bank and walked straight to Kathy’s window with a concealed shotgun. The robber demanded she hand over all the cash and told her and all the employees to get on the floor face down. The robber took one of the loan officers to the vault to get more cash. During this time, a customer came in and the robber quickly made him join the others on the floor. He told everyone to stay down as someone was watching them and would shoot them after he left. The brave customer quickly jumped up after the robber left and tried to chase him down in his vehicle. He ran out of gas in front of the bank President’s home, AND, the President coincidentally happened to be home because he was on vacation. The customer and President called the police; however, the robber was not to be found until many years later on the west coast. He was making his “living” robbing banks and law enforcement eventually caught up with him.
Kathy will spend retirement with her husband, two daughters and grandchildren. They enjoy traveling and just returned from Hawaii. She looks forward to more travels, gardening, canning, sewing and spending time at their lake home.