With his signature on a sales document last month, George Chandler brought to close a career spanning more than six decades and ended the “Chandler Era” at the First National Bank in Pratt.
The Chandler influence began more than a century ago, when George Chandler’s father, Charles Quarles Chandler II, raised in near poverty by a widowed mother, went to work at his uncle’s bank in Rocheport, Mo. In his lifetime, he started or purchased control of more than 30 financial institutions, including the Kansas National Bank in Wichita, later renamed Intrust, and the Citizens State Bank in Medicine Lodge, which purchased a failing First National Bank there.
At one time the family owned controlling interest in 67 banks, managed by brothers, cousins, nephews or grandchildren, according to Cheryl White, who has been George Chandler’s secretary for 13 years.
“If you were a Chandler man you went into the banking business. If you married a Chandler woman, you went into the banking business,” she related.
George Chandler followed suit, although he considered a military career.
Two weeks before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, bringing the United States into World War II, Chandler joined the U.S. Army Air Corps, but “kept his mouth shut” about already knowing how to fly.
“They thought I was an apt student,” he recalled, with a smile.
After six months of flight training, he graduated as a Second Lieutenant and was assigned to fighter squadrons in Hawaii and New Guinea, flying P-40 aircraft. He flew P-38s in the Solomon Islands for nearly a year. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with Eleven Oak Leaf Clusters and earned designation as a “Flying Ace,” shooting down five enemy aircraft.
Twice aboard his P-38 he had an engine shot out, but both times he was able to control the fire and return to base on one engine.
Chandler said he was lucky.
He also related that six months ago, while taking a test to renew his driver’s license, the examiner commented that he had unusually good situation analysis.
“In aircraft combat if you don’t keep track of what’s going on around you, you’re gone,” he noted.
In 1944 he returned to the United States as a flight instructor, with a reputation as a disciplinarian, devoted to setting goals and making them happen.
“In the military the goals are clearly defined and resources are defined,” Chandler said. “It’s up to you to achieve the goals with the resources you have. A great deal of this is self discipline.”
Self discipline was reinforced by the military, but learned as a young boy.
If his father said breakfast was at 7:15, you were to be in your chair at 7:15. A minute later would cost you a dime; however C.Q. Chandler was fair. If he was late, he paid his children 10 times that. They only collected one time, George Chandler said.
During the Great Depression, while he was president of the bank in Medicine Lodge, the governor called a meeting of the state’s bankers, informing them that all banks in the country would be required to close for one day.
“I’ve been running this bank all these years so I won’t have to close,” Chandler said his father told the governor.
Arguments ensued and the elder Chandler did not return home until 4 a.m. and missed the 7:15 breakfast call.
George Chandler followed a guiding principle set down by his father: When a man puts his money in my bank he is entitled to withdraw his money at any time.
That obligates the bank to make short-term loans, payable when the wheat is harvested or the cattle are sold, for example. When a bank makes long-term real estate loans, it has misrepresented itself to its customers, Chandler said; such loans are the responsibility of savings and loan institutions.
When the war ended and the military downsized, Chandler found himself with little to do, so he left the service and returned to Kansas, first working with his brother at the Chandler National Bank in Lyons, then as president of a bank in Sterling. In 1948 the Chandlers were contacted by George W. Lemon, who wanted to sell the First National Bank in Pratt. George Chandler became the face of First National for the next 61 years.
Also drawing on his early training, Chandler has found many ways to support the community that supports his bank.
“My parents were very strong in their religious beliefs, particularly the admonition in the Bible to share your blessings. We were trained that you have an obligation to your community.”
Chandler made a generous donation for the construction of the first building for the nursing department at Pratt Community College, and for an addition that officially opened last week. He has also provided scholarships to nursing students, as well as helping with special needs of students. A recent endowment will provide scholarships for years in the future. The nursing program has been named the Chandler School of Nursing and Allied Health in honor of contributions by Chandler and his wife Barbara.
“Writing a check is not a difficult thing,” Chandler said, in light of the struggles of students trying to find a better way to provide for their families.
Although he is not against helping adults, Chandler’s emphasis has frequently been on young people, because they have the benefit of a lifetime ahead of them. Other projects have been the Gift of Knowledge, that mails a book every month to any child under the age of five, a breakfast at the Pratt County Fair because in 1948 Chandler saw 4-H’ers eating candy bars and pop for breakfast and thought a hot meal would be a better start for their day, paying for one free day of swimming each week during the summer and donating money for the construction of Chandler Station at Sixth Street Park for the mini train operated by the Pratt Pilot Club.
An avid history reader, Chandler became involved in an attempt to correct military records regarding the shooting down of Admiral Yamamoto, the mastermind of the Pearl Harbor bombing. The Air Force assigned dual credit to Tom Lanphier and Rex Barber. Photo evidence indicates Barber should receive sole credit, Chandler and other fighter pilots believe, and in 1989 he was instrumental in forming the Second Yamamoto Mission Association, to change the record. They’ve been unsuccessful, but he hasn’t given up.
“Pig-headedness,” he answered, smiling broadly, to the question of why it is so important to him. “I don’t like to give up.”
That perhaps, but also a belief in accuracy.
More than 10 years ago, it became obvious that the bank would someday be sold. It was not a difficult decision, just part of a natural progression, Chandler said. It was his hope that Kelly Mason, president of the bank since 2002 until recently being named chief executive officer and chairman of the Board of Directors, would be the buyer, along with a team of other local investors. Chandler acknowledged that he could have sold the bank for more money to “any number of wealthy men in Wichita.”
“That wouldn’t be as good as Kelly putting together a local team whose interest is not just profit but the whole community. I think this community will benefit from having ownership right here instead of someplace else,” he said.
Chandler was married to Barbara for 56 years, before her death in 2000. They raised four children, George T. Jr., Mulvane, David, who lives with his wife Michele in Pratt and is retired from the bank, Barbara Ann, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, and Paul, Odessa, Fla.
Chandler lives in an apartment in Wichita he purchased after some health problems in 1995, assuming that his wife would survive him and need a home free from responsibilities. He will maintain an office at the bank for as long as he wishes, and continues as vice president of the Board of Directors.
Pratt, Kan. —
