Ron Eschbach has been at the Antwerp Exchange Bank for 30 years this October. There is a celebration in honor of his commitment to the bank and the community all day on Friday, October 24.
It was in 1973 when a fresh graduate of Bowling Green State University began working in Defiance at a local bank. On October 29, 1984 he moved on to become head loan officer of the Antwerp Exchange Bank. Ron Eschbach wanted to move back to Paulding County for his life and career.
Ron is originally from Paulding where his mother, Ruth, and family continue to live. Even before he graduated from Paulding High School, his desire to be in the financial business sector was established.
Ron has witnessed many changes over the years in the banking industry. When he began in Defiance, every record, every deposit, every withdraw and transaction was kept in ledger books. There were rooms just to hold these books. Since then, he has seen the introduction of debit cards, ATMs, computers, web accounts and passwords, automatic transfers, ACH, Direct Deposit and many others. Credit cards came in widespread usage in this time.
The first checks with MICR encoding were printed in 1959 and it took a while for banks to adopt this system, but by the time Ron came on board, it was nearly implemented everywhere. MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, and is the funny shaped but readable numbers on the bottom of checks that allow the bank routing and account numbers to be read by enabled devices at high speed.
Ron married his wife, Marsha, whom he met in Fort Wayne at Kaysan’s Restaurant in Fort Wayne. One of his hobbies include spending time with family including his son Nate and his step-daughters Kim and Kari. Ron has seven grandchildren. When he is not working, Ron enjoys playing on the green at the golf course.
Rotary has been a consuming part of Ron’s life along with being on many committees and boards in the county including Paulding County Hospital and United Way. Community has been at the forefront of his life.
At this time, he does not have plans of retirement because he loves his work. Apparently his workers do too. John Kobee stated, “Ron is an excellent leader. He encourages collaboration on all the bank projects.” Several of the bank employees have been at AEB as long or longer than Ron. Others have even come back to work after their children left home and the bank was more than willing to have them come back.
The future of Antwerp Exchange Bank will revolve heavily around the use of mobile devices and internet. The bank will be introducing an app for smart phones, for people who need immediate access to their accounts and allow instant transfers.
Last year, it was decided to completely renovate the Main branch. Using local business for the completion of the work made it a very good decision to create a new larger environment of space.
Another big project with Mr. Eschbach at the helm has been the AEB Payne Branch. It opened in December of 2008 and is approaching its sixth year in the area. The bank has been well-received by the community. This year a new building was constructed on the site of derelict buildings downtown. The Payne Chamber of Commerce approached Geoff Hyman, Payne Operations Manager, and Ron about the revitalization of the downtown space. The plans proceeded and worked well for the bank and the town.
Other current projects involve the Indiana side of the line with the new Antwerp Exchange Bank Loan Office in Harlan. Ron said it has been going well there and they have had talks of opening a full branch in the future because people are asking for a local bank.
Yes, Ron has been quite the fixture of the area. His leadership and skills are apparent even through the banking industry conundrums of the late 2000’s and the bank coming out stronger than ever.
You are invited to the celebration in honor of his commitment to the bank and the community all day on Friday, October 24 or until the cake runs out.
