John Dean, one of the men who co-founded what is now the Community Bankers of Iowa, died May 26 at the age of 97. He was also a long-serving leader of southwest Iowa-based Glenwood State Bank.
A veteran of World War II and the Korean War, Dean enlisted in the U.S. Army at the age of 17. He was eventually sent to Germany with the Temporary Occupational Force to coordinate the relocation of war dogs back to the United States. Between tours, Dean received a bachelor’s degree in business and economics at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. He completed his law degree in January 1954, and was admitted to both the Iowa and Nebraska Bar Associations.
Dean returned to Glenwood in 1954 to join his father, Leonard Dean, at the family-owned bank. He was named president in the mid-1960s. Dean’s son-in-law, Larry Winum, was named president in 1992, although Dean continued working full-time at the bank into his 90s.
Considered a legendary figure in Iowa community banking, Dean was one of four men who founded what was then the Iowa Independent Bankers in 1971, and served as the association’s second president from 1973-74. Dean testified before Congress on banking topics, and was invited to travel to Russia to discuss agriculture law as a way to modernize the country’s farming practices.
A cornerstone of the Glenwood business community, Dean was a charter member of Glenwood Industrial Foundation, a member of Glenwood Water Board for nearly sixty years, and a director on the Farmer Mac board.