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Burger retires from 40 years in banking

Lead Summary
By
Lori Sorenson

When Greg Burger reflects on more than 40 years in his banking career, the memories are accented by both challenges and rewards.
For example, he vividly recalls the farming crisis of the 1980s, but he said the satisfaction of helping people is what colors his career.
“It’s been a wonderful career,” he said. “The most rewarding part of my career is when people came to me and said, ‘If it weren’t for you and the bank, I wouldn’t be farming now,’ or ‘I wouldn’t be in business now.’ That’s what’s been rewarding for me.”
Burger began his career in Luverne with Norwest Bank in January of 1984 as senior vice president about the time the farming crisis hit the Midwest.
“We went through some very, very difficult times,” Burger recalled.
“There were some really hard conversations about people’s livelihoods and telling them, ‘It appears it’s not working out.’ I had these difficult conversations with people I’d known for years.”
Burger said the hope is that these dealings were both professional and compassionate. “When I look back at it, I think we handled ourselves very well, and we managed to keep most of the people on the farm or working in their businesses,” he said.
In April of 1991, Burger accepted the position of president of Minnwest Bank Montevideo and served in that capacity until September of 1998 when he returned to Luverne as president of Minnwest Bank. 
 
‘Tied at the hip to farming’
Burger said Minnwest in Luverne is an agricultural bank and it’s what’s defined the bank’s business model. “We’re tied at the hip to agriculture,” he said. “When our ag community does well, we do well.”
For this reason, he said the banking crisis of 2008 wasn’t as disastrous in this part of the country as it was in other parts of the country.
“We didn’t have the repercussions that other banks did, because agriculture at the time was doing well,” Burger said. “And the thing about farming is it’s cyclical.”
After several years of wide profit margins, he said farmers are now preparing for another downswing.
“Ag profits right now are slim to none, and if the markets stay where they’re at now, it’s going to be awhile before we see things improve,” Burger said.
“But most of our ag customers have been wise about maintaining some reserves in the good times to brace for recessions. … It’s a question of hanging in there and waiting for the good times to come back.”
 
Civic involvement won’t
end with retirement
Burger has enjoyed being the face of Minnwest Bank in the community and he said his goal in retirement is to remain active in civic involvement.
“It defines who you are professionally and socially,” Burger said about his role as Minnwest Bank president.
“I will miss the relevance of that role. I’ll have to understand that when I’m no longer sitting in this chair, I’ll be relevant, but not in the same way.”
Burger, who will retire at the end of March, said he’s served on nearly every board and committee in the community in his 32-year tenure in the banking business in Luverne.
For example, he was on the Luverne Community Hospital board during the time it was sold to Sanford and the new hospital was built on the north side of town.
He headed up the recent Historical Society fundraising campaign for The History Center, and he’s been involved with Luverne Area Chamber.
Burger currently serves on the Luverne Initiatives For Tomorrow Board, the Rock County Development Corporation and the ATLAS for Life Board, to name a few.
 
People person
As bank president, Burger said it was a requirement of the job to contribute to civic organizations, but these human connections are what attracted him to the banking industry in the first place.
“I was extremely fortunate to find a career in the people business,” Burger said. “I like dealing with and working with people.”
He said that’s the nature of financial management.
“Dealing with people and their money puts you pretty close to what’s near and dear to them,” Burger said.
“Helping people through the bumps they have in their financial lives has been rewarding … knowing you’ve been a help and you’ve provided for their needs.”
The same has been true of his family of bank employees.
“We all spend big pieces of our lives with the people we work with,” Burger said.
In conjunction with Burger’s retirement, Minnwest promoted Isaac DeBoer to market president.
He’s been with the Luverne branch since 1998 and said he’s appreciated Burger’s leadership role in the bank and in the community.
“He will be long remembered at Minnwest for the role he had in growing the business both in the market where he worked and also into new markets for the bank,” DeBoer said.
“Outside of the bank, Greg will be associated with his service and leadership in the communities in which he lived. Greg was always willing to share his knowledge and experience with various groups and boards within each of the communities that he has lived in for the past 35 years.”
Burger said community banking continues to change rapidly with online banking and other technical advances.
“To some degree, it’s diminished the one-on-one contacts that make the business of banking interesting and challenging,” he said. “That’s probably the major reason for me to exit the business at this time.”
Burger and his wife, Janet, will continue to live in Luverne. Their children are Jennifer (and Troy) Thone, Luverne; Melissa (and Don) Cunningham, Spencer, Iowa; and Ryan (and Becka) Burger, Sioux Falls.
The Burgers have six grandchildren with a seventh due at the end of the month.
An open house retirement celebration is planned for the afternoon of Thursday, March 31. Refreshments will be served in Minnwest Bank.

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