A family tradition continues

On June 14th of this year, Vice President Nancy Devine – our longest-term employee — celebrated her 37th anniversary with Framingham Co-operative Bank!

In 1971, to help work her way through college as a liberal arts and sociology major at the University of Southern Maine, Nancy took over a part-time teller’s position at the Bank (at $2.22 an hour) that had been vacated by her sister Linda following Linda’s college graduation. “I saved the Bank money,” Nancy says. “They already had a nameplate saying ‘Miss Devine’ and it wasn’t being used!”

Legacy
The family legacy at the Bank actually goes further back than the Devine sisters. Their great-grandfather James Turner, a Framingham dairy owner, was a member of the Board of Directors from the 1930’s up to the time of his death in 1970.

Her own experience as a Framingham Co-operative Bank employee— coupled with Mr. Turner’s oft-expressed fondness and high regard for the Bank — made quite an impression. Nancy returned home after graduation and took a full-time teller position with the Bank.

“Mr. Atwell, the president at the time, interviewed me for the job,” she recalls. He asked me three questions: Are you honest? Are you good in math? When can you start?”

Of all the bank activities Nancy has been involved in over the years, she says that her time “on the window,” where direct interaction with customers was key, provided perhaps the greatest memories.

Community ties
The significance of that early teller experience may also be rooted in old family values of “treating the customer right.” Nancy’s mother Doris owned Devine’s Card and Gift Shop on Union Avenue in downtown Framingham for nearly 25 years, and worked with customers at the old Gilchrist’s store downtown for several years before that. Dad Harry was a customer service manager for Stop and Shop operations in Norwood, Needham and Marlborough for nearly 46 years. “When I first started at the Bank, he and I used to have discussions about which was the harder job: teller or cashier!”

Memories
Scores of Bank customers have provided Nancy with memories she cherishes.

“I met so many people — many of whom are personal friends now,” she says. “And I watched customers’ families grow through the years, and was excited to have them share their stories with me.

“Many years ago, I was the first new face one particular customer saw when he left Framingham Union Hospital following the birth of his first child: a son named Jeffrey.

“The man shared his pride and excitement with me that morning, and from then on — up to this day — he looks for me when he is in the Bank, to catch me up on Jeffrey’s milestones and accomplishments. ‘Can you believe Jeffrey is a year old today…Jeffrey started school…Jeffrey celebrated his bar mitzvah…Jeffrey is off to college…Jeffrey graduated….Jeffrey got his first job!’

“Jeffrey and his dad became like family to me,” says Nancy. “Where else are you going to find something like that? It was the same way with many of our customers — they become like family to us, and the Bank is also like a family to them.”

Nancy’s own family also gets a fair share of her attention, too, including her mother who still live in the nearby Framingham home near Learned Pond where Nancy grew up, four sisters, three nieces and a nephew.

Go Sox!
 If there’s time left over from family, you’ll find Nancy rooting for the Home Team (whether it’s the Sox, Pats or Celtics), tending the vegetable garden at her   home in Ashland, golfing or skiing, cooking, or on her weather-permitting three-mile daily walk.

Then there are vacations at the family cottage at Old Orchard Beach in Maine, or time spent  at Sunday River or Killington. But the vacation highlight of her life, she says, was the trip to Maui she won at a Jimmy Fund golf tournament ten years ago. And, wouldn’t you know, it was a Bank customer who had invited her to play in the Tournament in the first place!

Today, Nancy’s focus at the Bank includes helping customers open and/or manage their IRAs (individual retirement accounts) and, of course, keeping up with the customer relationships she has established over the years.

No Way!
Would she ever consider leaving her position at Framingham Co-operative Bank?

“Only if I could take all the customers with me,” she says. “We have the best customers.

“They are amazing.”

Nancy Devine — one of the people you can count on at Framingham Co-operative Bank!