Robert Eric Meyerson, chair of Cattail Bancshares, Inc., Atwater, Minn., died on Wednesday, March 5 at the age of 80. Meyerson was involved with the family-owned bank for more than 40 years, leading the organization for most of those years.
Robert, born and raised in New York City, became involved in the banking industry through family. Tom and Ruth Danielson, the parents of his wife, Suzanne, owned Atwater State Bank. Suzanne became president of the bank in 1985. Suzanne and Robert met earlier while taking a class together at the University of Minnesota, where Robert became a professor, using his Ph.D. in Modern European Intellectual History.
One of Suzanne’s first projects as bank president was to acquire Kimball State Bank, 35 miles from Atwater. With the additional workload brought on by the acquisition, Ruth Danielson suggested to Robert that he become a banker. With both reluctance and determination, Robert joined the bank.
“He devoted his years to learning, loving, and growing the family business,” the family wrote in an obituary. “Along with excellent staff, Bob grew the bank from a one-town bank to a six-location, two-bank holding company with its banks serving as many financial services as possible to promote their local economies.”
Atwater State Bank had about $12 million in assets when Meyerson joined. He was named president of the bank in Kimball when that acquisition was completed. Cattail Bancshares rebranded the two banks Harvest Bank in 2013, a year after it purchased Citizens State Bank of Waverly and Montrose. Meyerson built the organization to its total assets size today of $348 million.
Robert was active in the various bank trade groups. He frequently wrote letters to officials at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and other bank regulatory agencies, which were published in the local, regional and national newspapers.
In 2017, Cattail Bancshares sponsored a screening of the movie: “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” at the annual convention of the Independent Community Bankers of Minnesota. The film chronicles the story of a family in Chinatown, New York, that owns a Federal Savings Bank. In the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, the Manhattan district attorney filed criminal charges against the bank and the family spent five years fighting back.