On My Watch: Celebrating the Community of Banksville, Its Bank and Retiring Manager
By Anne W. Semmes
There is a deeply rooted community in backcountry Greenwich called Banksville, properly named it seems, as it has a history a-building around its bank, encircled by notable retailers. So, a spotlight did shine on that Chase Bank located in the Banksville shopping center on a Wednesday evening of July 30, at the celebration of the retiring, long-serving general manager Jean Mahood, with some 80 gatherers behind the Bank in front of the Happiness Is Back Country Market and Cafe.
Introducing Mahood before the gathering was Easy Kelsey, of Kelsey Farm. “Step up Jean, after 24 years here… How many of us appreciate having a real live person who knows your name and cares about you…This is unique in this country, in Banksville. This gal made my business stay afloat because I make so many mistakes and she corrects them like crazy.”
“I just want to tell everybody,” Mahood said, “how much I appreciate this and how much I appreciate all of you, all of these years making me want to stay here. And it’s very bittersweet for me to make this decision…I’m going to miss everyone. You guys really warm my heart.”
Mahood is actually retiring after 52 years, beginning with Putnam Trust in Greenwich in 1973 that became Bank of New York in 1996, with her coming to its Banksville branch in 2001 where Chase Bank took it over in 2006. And it was in 2020 that the community drama began when Chase determined – with six other branches across Greenwich – to close the Banksville branch.
The fight to keep open the Banksville Chase Bank branch
Mahood was getting those calls from her Manhattan executive office telling of upset customers calling, “Do you know Mrs. Smith? She’s telling us it’s going to be 45 minutes before she can get to Greenwich and back home again.” And Mahood would respond, “Yeah, because we’re in the backcountry and you get behind a landscaping truck or a bus, they stop at every house.” But “You’re only 11 miles from downtown Greenwich?!” “And I said, ‘Yeah, but the buses stop at every house up here.’”
“They actually thought I put the [Closing Down!] posters in the bank,” shared Mahood, “And I said, ‘No, that wasn’t me… I didn’t want to lose my job. So, I was surprised and overwhelmed because I couldn’t believe that the customers all stepped up… And it was amazing that they listened to the clients and kept the branch open.”
Easy Kelsey, in between caring for her horses, would step up with a handwritten letter to the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, beginning, “Your Chase Bank in Banksville in Greenwich is a winning example of your awareness and caring for local folks and businesses… Neighbors like me depend on and appreciate your bank and particularly its staff. They really go all out to help us…Truly I hope you’ll reconsider your plan to close Chase Banksville.”
Kelsey was remembering as she wrote, “sitting down in Jean’s office multiple times discussing everything from family matters to financial matters. There’s no one else I would do that with in any other bank.” She was “horrified” learning of its closing. “I was going there a couple of times a week, and I discovered a lot of the merchants would go there with a day’s receipt…And I thought it was another chink in our becoming mechanized and technology was taking over the human element in banking and in everything.”
Easy Kelsey steps up with posters and a petition
Kelsey would create those posters and a petition. “I went to everybody I could think of to sign the petition, and everyone signed it.” As did Kelsey’s friend and neighbor, Susan Fisher, also a Mahood fan. “Jean’s been really instrumental in advising me about finances and my children.” Fisher shared an especially critical moment needing banking help.
“After 9/11 [with husband Ben Fisher’s loss] my brother said, since you don’t know if your company’s been completely destroyed…if you’ll ever get another paycheck and you’ll need some funds, so he and I went to the bank and we opened a $25,000 loan, which in fact I never used, but at least it was there.” Fisher too would address a letter to CEO Dimon, pointing out “he had no idea of the amount of money that was right around in this neighborhood and the big properties and the wealthy people who did their banking there.”
Two months later in November the good news came – the branch would remain open Mahood learned. She looked back on her years. “The best part of your job is the relationships that you form with your customers. I’ve seen their children be born and grow up and get married…It’s just a very rewarding job because you’re helping people, and now having these people come in and thank me, and there’s been tears – that’s why I say it’s so bittersweet.”
It was in that winning month of November 2020 that a similar celebratory party was held behind the to-remain Bank (as reported in the Greenwich Sentinel) but this July 30 celebration honored Chase Bank general manager Jean Mahood.
The community celebrates Jean Mahood
There were those groaning boards of plenty to eat beneath a tent, all supplied by Happiness Is, with cocktails provided by The Study and Banksville Wine and Liquors, and lots of neighbors and bankers welcoming each other. Thanks were given to Kelsey and Fisher who had pulled this celebration together. During the introductions Fisher presented to Mahood a set of hand painted bird plates by watercolor painter Beverly Orthwein, a resident of Banksville.
Testimonies fell freely between grateful bank customers. “I motivated my wife who works for JP Morgan,” said Richard Ferguson of Banksville, “to have a little discussion with Jamie Dimond to talk about it. And I made a few phone calls. Sometimes if you keep it down at the lower level, they don’t understand…”
Katty Parker spoke of having lived in the Banksville area for 40-plus years. Having had an account at the bank over those years she noted her account number was in fewer digits than the present-day accounts. From the get-go she recalled, “I just right away felt so at home here, and since I’m a dinosaur, I like to do things in person. I like face to face. And that’s why when we heard the branch was closing, we fought for it.”
Harvey Kaminski, a retired attorney and financier and also a long time Banksville resident, shared having first joined the Chase Bank “around COVID time.” He’d found its “warmth and the cooperation extraordinary. “I’ve dealt with a lot of banks over my years,” he told, “but this bank is not only friendly, it’s professional, very easy to do business. So, you know what? I am very proud to live in this community… Jeanie’s trained everybody in her image to be as nice, as warm and sympathetic as she is, so I just hope everything continues as it was under her remarkable leadership.”
