BUCYRUS, OH (CRAWFORD COUNTY NOW)–A familiar face in the community is now the CEO of a familiar financial institution in town – Peoples Savings and Loan Company.
David Coffman, 54, has been promoted to Executive Vice President/CEO of the bank, located at 300 S. Walnut Street. He officially took over in January, succeeding Renae Cox who retired.
“It makes you appreciate everybody before me and everything they did that you’re not aware of,” Coffman said. “It’s just an honor to represent Peoples Savings and Loan, which has been locally owned and operated since 1888.”
Coffman, a 1988 Wynford High School graduate, is no stranger to the city or the downtown landmark. He grew up west of town and has been at Peoples since 1996, first as a mortgage loan officer and then as Vice President of Mortgage Lending in 2013.
A phone call led him there.
Coffman graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1993 and accepted a job working in the environmental lab at a company called Aquatech. Only natural – his bachelor’s degree was in environmental policy.
A few years later, however, he got a call from John Clime, then the CEO of Peoples. They knew each other from the Mt. Zion United Methodist Church in Bucyrus which they both attended, and Clime was scouting for a new loan officer.
“He just thought I’d be a good fit here,” Coffman recalled. “Once I got started, I liked it working with the loan customers over the years. It just kind of kept continuing and now 28 years later, I’m still here.”
Although he didn’t aspire to follow in Clime’s footsteps, Coffman said, he was named to the bank’s seven-member board of directors in 2019. When Cox retired, he was chosen to move into the executive office just to the left of the home office’s lobby entrance.
Coffman said he has seen plenty of changes in the banking industry during his tenure, most importantly the switch to online banking services in 2004. He expects to oversee the implementation of other new products and services for customers down the road, too.
Peoples celebrated the opening of its current building in 2001 and its 125th anniversary in 2013. A branch office is located at 1530 North Sandusky Avenue. “We have a good board of directors. Everybody is local, people who cover the business sector, agriculture, schools.”
Coffman is still active at Mt. Zion Church, where he’s a longtime member of the choir and serves on the Administrative Council. He and his wife, Traci – a Colonel Crawford graduate – have two daughters and live down the road from the farm where he grew up.
Because Coffman found a career at Peoples Savings and Loan, a hometown bank and more. “I appreciate all the customers, past and present, and we’ll continue to serve them and the community. That’s definitely why we’re here.”