Mr. Wachovia

The financial industry lost a champion and North Carolina a great friend when John Grimes Medlin died this week. Medlin was the gold standard of responsible and accountable capitalism, but also was an approachable, low-key, forward thinking rock of integrity and trust.

John understood you had to appreciate your heritage before charting a course for the future. He enthusiastically told the story of banking and Wachovia to most anyone willing to listen. Medlin’s life was formed growing up on a farm in Johnston County, by his four years at UNC and in the military, but mostly by learning from legendary bankers John Watlington and Archie Davis. It didn’t take these leaders long to understand that Medlin was willing to work hard, eager to learn their business and embrace the Wachovia philosophy of soundness, profitability and growth. He became president of the bank at the age of 43 and led Wachovia until he retired as CEO in 1993.

Medlin’s humble, low key and accessible leadership style resulted from continually asking himself who he worked for. To be sure the shareholders were entitled to appropriate dividends, but Wachovia’s stakeholders also included its employees, customers and communities it served. He heard he stories of how Wachovia kept North Carolina afloat during the Great Depression by providing money for the state to pay employees. He watched Archie Davis and Wachovia lend energy, money and leadership to the Research Triangle Park. And John became part of that proud tradition.

The first one to arrive in the morning and often the last to leave, John Medlin understood that people make the institution, so he was always accessible to them, often eating in the employee cafeteria to hear what people were thinking. But this wasn’t just a management ploy. John liked people and recognized that institutions that grow large often lose that personal touch, so Wachovia pioneered the “personal banker” concept of giving every customer a person who could be called or seen for questions or problems. Other innovations included variable rate mortgages and variable rate credit cards.

I was fortunate to conduct the last filmed interview with Medlin in late April of this year. He agreed to it on the condition the interview be about the history and significance of Wachovia, not him. Medlin said enough had already been written and said about him. But John’s story, like that of Wachovia, was essentially the story of North Carolina - a story of humble beginnings, diligence, perseverance and ultimate success. At a time when the public has lost trust with so many sectors of our society John Medlin stood tall as a person of integrity and trustworthiness, ranking among the great business and civic leaders our state produced in the 20^th century.

It wasn’t long ago we said good by to the blue and green Wachovia logo and sadly we must now say good by to the man who most of us call Mr. Wachovia.