After 42 years at the Dolores State Bank, Douglas Aiken retired Sept. 27.
“I’m not bummed. I’m happy about it, I’m ready. I think there’s a time when everyone needs to step away,” Aiken said.
In 1981, he got his start in banking at First National Bank.
By August 1982, he was working at the Dolores State Bank, where he stayed for the remainder of his career.
That same year, Toto released their hit song “Africa,” Michael Jordan started playing professional basketball, and “E.T.” hit the big screen.
And in banking, everything was paper-based.
“Checks, deposits. The only electronic transactions I can even think of, and they weren’t even electronic actually, would be a wire from bank to bank. We would call another bank and initiate the wire,” Aiken said.
The bank’s only computer was “taller than I am,” said Aiken. “It was about the size of a gun safe, a tall gun safe.”
What’s more, nonlocal checks were flown to the Federal Reserve in Denver, and they’d bring our checks back here, Aiken said.
“There was a time when the plane crashed. Fortunately, they were checks coming to us, but the banks that had accepted them for deposit had to recreate them as best they could,” Aiken said.
“Technology has changed banking a lot, and it’s been good. It’s taken the plane crash example out of it,” he said.
Despite the changes, the bank’s commitment to customer service has remained steadfast, Aiken said.
“Even though the technology has changed the way we deliver the services to the customer, we still strive to give them the best customer experience that we can,” he said. “That’s been very important to me.”
Larry Engel, the new president of Dolores State Bank, agreed, and added how the new technologies in banking “provides customers a way to interact with us that they couldn’t before.”
“Most people don’t ever come to the bank, because they don’t need to,” said Engel. “They have a debit card, an ATM card, they can do remote deposits. They can do all those things, they don’t ever have to come here.”
“But we also want them to have the option to come here if they need to,” said the bank’s new vice president, Shawna Valdez.
Or to have the option to call me directly, and get a call back if I miss it, Aiken said.
Aiken is still on the bank’s board of directors, so he’s in once a week at those meetings or special occasions, like “when a reporter comes in.”
And he’s confident in the exchange of powers, with Engel as president.
“Larry’s grandfather was one of the original directors of the bank, so it’s still kind of in the family,” Aiken said.
Engel himself has been in banking for more than 30 years; 20 have been at the Dolores State Bank.
“I’ve worked across the hall from Doug now for close to 20 years and so I think I have a pretty good idea of how he did things,” said Engel. “And, as he said, customer service is where we try to make a difference.”
“At the same time, we are trying to keep up with technology and making sure we have products and services that customers want and value,” Engel said.
“A lot of times it’s more about improving; technology helps us improve a service we already offer,” Valdez added.
Soon, the bank intends to reopen its location across the street from Cliffrose between Cortez and Manco, but not for public use.
It’ll be an operations center for bank employees doing work behind the scenes like double-checking mobile deposits, things like that, Valdez said.
Back at the bank, the transition has been “seamless” and things will keep progressing along.
“I always enjoy listening to people who have been in banking for a long time talk about changes. It’s like Doug said, the changes come all the time,” said Valdez. “A lot of what I’ve heard when we announced Doug’s retirement is, ‘Well how are things going to change?’ Well, what people don’t realize is they’re changing all the time, every day, so that’s going to stay the same.”
