A Tribute to William Mayberry
By Don Hooper

 

Bill retired in 1968, but remained active and had an office at Orchard Lake - Thirteen Mile Road which he visited a couple of times a week, but then on a lesser and lesser manner over the next several years. Sometime in 1975 or 1975 I was working in the Branch Department and visited our offices to work with management and junior management on call programs. I stopped into the Woodward Hunter Blvd office one afternoon and standing in a long uniline of customers was Bill Mayberry.

Nobody in the office recognized or knew who he was. I walked to the line, introduced myself and asked if I could assist him in his transaction. I walked him to the management area of the bank, introduced him to them, and had one of the junior management staff take his transaction behind the cages and take care of it for him. He was such a gentleman that he would not use his former position to impose on the staff. I don't know how long that had been going on in other offices.

He lived in Howell, Mi, but came to attend various meetings and functions all over SE Michigan. I don't believe there was a single person more responsible for the growth and development of MNB than Bill Mayberry. He became President in 1949, and led the merger with Industrial National, and subsequently the formation of Manufacturers National Corporation and thelisting on the stock exchanges. He saw most of the growth of the branch department until his retirement.