Marshall Sloane
Title: Chairman, Century Bank
Age: 87
Experience: 50-plus
Somerville native Marshall Sloane never really intended to get into the banking business. In his younger days, he sought out a banking tenant to fill a space in a building his father had bought, but when he found none, the bank commissioner suggested he consider starting a thrift. He chuckled, recalling a story from the bank’s beginnings, when a friend’s mother balked at the idea of depositing her money in a bank run out of a trailer. “Charlie, there’s wheels on that trailer! My money could be gone by the morning!” she exclaimed.
Of course, that trailer never took off, and Century Bank has now grown to more than $3 billion in assets. Today, at 87, Sloane is chairman of the board and likes to devote much of his energy toward charitable giving in his community. He sat down with Banker & Tradesman recently to chat about doing well, doing good and sticking close to home.
Q: Tell me a little about the early days of Century Bank.
A: Well, our furniture business was doing OK, but I started to like banking because it was a very simple business then. We only had two products: a home mortgage and a home FHA home improvement product, up to $10,000 if you wanted to build a new garage or get a new boiler or whatever.
In the ’60s, I started to think about a commercial bank. I found out we didn’t have a state-chartered commercial bank in the city, so I got a charter for Century Bank and started in a trailer on the corner of Mystic and Fellsway West [in Medford]. Because of my experience in the thrift and furniture business, we took in a million bucks the first day, which was kind of historic.
I think the fact that I was brought up to do things properly, honestly and honorably, has paid off for me. It’s been a labor of love. Banking is cyclical. There are good times and there are bad times, but we were always very conservative. I always believed in staying close to home, and we never made a loan unless it was within driving distance.
Q: Why was it so important for you to start giving back?
A: I was born and brought up in this community, and being part of it, if the community is good to you – and the community’s been very good to me – I felt that we had to support the community.
I remember when I made my first major gift to my alma mater, and I felt good. You know, you do some good, you feel good. That’s our theory here: to give back. The community’s been good to us, we’ve been profitable, so why not? And we support almost any decent organization. That’s basically it.
Q: Catholic Charities recently honored you with its Justice and Compassion Award. How did you first get involved with them?
A: When I was 35 years old, I contracted inoperable cancer. I had three little kids, and I was told to get my life together. And I met this doctor who took me under his wing and took care of me. I was also introduced to this nun, and she said she would pray for me. I figured if my demise was going to come, I might as well start enjoying myself, so I bought a boat, and on the weekends, I would go to the priests’ retirement home, pick up the nuns, and we’d take a boxed lunch and take the nuns up and down the Charles River.
And I felt that she was so nice to me and she prayed for me, that I owed something. That’s how I got involved with Catholic Charities; I figured that was a good place to start. I’m Jewish, but they’ve always welcomed my family and myself. There were no barriers.
Somebody said to me recently that Boston at one time was a very parochial city. Every group stuck with each other. Today, it’s one city. That’s what’s beautiful about it.
Marshall Sloane’s Top Five Charitable Causes:
- The Boy Scouts of America
- Catholic Charities
- The Dimock Community Health Center in Roxbury
- Cambridge and Somerville Program for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Rehabilitation
- The Franciscan Hospital for Children in Brighton
