Independent Banker - January 2019 - 70

CONNECTIONS
Community Spirit
An innovation in education
After a lengthy entrepreneurial career,
Dennis Frandsen of Frandsen Bank & Trust is
giving back by helping Minnesota students
pay their tuition. By Ed Avis
ennis Frandsen knows an opportunity
when he sees it. The 85-year-old owner of
$1.7 billion-asset Frandsen Bank & Trust, which
has 35 locations in North Dakota, Minnesota and
Wisconsin, has been an entrepreneur since his
teens. Over the next 60 years, he acquired nearly
50 companies.
So when Frandsen toured Pine Technical
& Community College in Pine City, Minn., he
sensed an opportunity to help his community.
He committed to paying the tuition for any 2018
graduate of Rush City High School who wanted
to attend the community college. He has since expanded
that commitment to include 2019 graduates
of Rush City High School and nearby Luck
High School, as well as added Wisconsin Indianhead
Technical College's campus in Rice Lake,
Wis., as an option for students.
" When I realized that at Pine Technical you can
become a nurse, an accountant, a plumber, an
electrician, an auto mechanic, a welder or a couple
of other trades, and I realized that we have a huge
shortage of tradesmen in our area, I decided this
was the right thing to do, " Frandsen says. " It gives
these students the opportunity to go to school for a
couple of years and go get a decent job. "
Twenty-five graduates of Rush City High School
started at Pine Technical last fall on Frandsen's
dime. He's paying for two years of tuition and up
to $1,000 for books or tools.
Early rejection
Frandsen was 17 when he started his first business,
a logging company that harvested timber
on his parents' land outside of Luck, a small
town in northwest Wisconsin. Two years later, in
1954, he learned of a nearby 200-acre parcel with
70 Q ICBA Independent Banker Q January 2019
D
decent timber that might be available and negotiated
a deal with the owner.
However, the bank in Luck rejected his application
for the loan he needed to close the deal. He
eventually found a lender willing to take a chance
on him, but he vowed he would someday own that
bank in Luck. Fast-forward 30 years. In the decades
after that successful land acquisition, Frandsen
grew his real estate holdings and acquired
Plastech Corp., a plastic injection molding firm.
" I had a good relationship with a representative
Quick stat
25
Rush City High
School graduates
Dennis Frandsen
sponsored last
fall to go to
Pine Technical
& Community
College
from U.S. Bank-it was First Minneapolis at that
time-and one day, he asked me what I would
like to do next in business, " Frandsen says. " Well,
as I would drive around the countryside and go
into small towns, I would always see a new Cadillac
alongside the local bank, and inside there's a
banker in a suit and tie, and he was the man of the
community. I told this guy from U.S. Bank that
I'd like to buy a bank, because obviously it was a
profitable enterprise. "
Six months later, the U.S. Bank rep came to him
with interesting news: The bank in Luck was for
sale. Frandsen had no experience as a banker, but
he jumped at the opportunity to fulfill his vow of
30 years earlier, and he bought the bank. " We've
been very successful ever since, " Frandsen says.
" I realized that every bank had a back room, so
I decided to buy another bank and consolidated
the two. That worked well, so I bought more than
40 banks and still own 35 of them today. "
Today, Frandsen Bank & Trust has $1.7 billion
in assets. Frandsen tends to keep the local executives
after an acquisition and allow them to continue
running the bank.
" Each local banker has lending authority. They
don't need to get approval from corporate or anything
like that, " Frandsen says. " They do a great
job, and we're doing well. "
Frandsen's manufacturing holdings have
also grown. Though he recently sold Kelley
Beekeeping, he still owns Industrial Netting
Independent Banker - January 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Independent Banker - January 2019
