Mary Rominger
In a couple of weeks, when Northwest Georgia Bank Loan Technician Mary Rominger retires from her post at the Main Office in Ringgold after 29 years, she won’t miss her cubicle. She won’t really miss the lunchroom, or the commute, or the sometimes stressful days, or the time away from her four grandchildren.
It’s the people that Mary will miss — her co-workers, her supervisors and her customers.
“I have enjoyed my time here, and I’ve worked with many different people over the years,” she said. “I think it’s the people that make a great place to work, and I have worked with some great people.”
One of those supervisors Mary says she will miss is Chairman & CEO Wes Smith, who hired Mary in the fall of 1975 to handle check returns. At the time, Mary worked at East Ridge City Bank, where she had worked since 1973. From 1968-73, she worked at Pioneer Bank in East Ridge, where Wes cut his teeth in the banking industry, along with Northwest retirees Wendell Roden and Glenda Carroll. From 1964-68, Mary worked at First Tennessee, and little did she know she would make a career in banking, a career that would see many changes in its almost four-decade span.
Mary, who worked part-time her first five years, eventually moved into the role of New Accounts Secretary, known as a Customer Service Representative (CSR) today, before transferring to Account Operations in April 1983, where she has worked ever since.
“When I first started at the Main Office, I worked in a room that is now the stairwell next to the teller line,” she said. “We only had two types of loans then, instead of the dozens, maybe hundreds of different options we can offer customers today.”
“Who would have ever thought that you could use a card to get your money instead of a handwritten check?” she said. “Today, with Internet banking and ATMs, you never really have to enter a bank to do most of your business.”
Mary has plans to travel after retirement and spend more time with her four grandchildren — Tori, Nick, Cole and Luke — at her Ringgold home where she and husband Richard have lived for a decade. The couple grew up in the Lakeview community of Catoosa County and attend McFarland Methodist Church.