A Spirited Alumni Cheer

At Annual Gathering, Former CBT Employees Toast Revival Of Three Beloved Letters

By KENNETH R. GOSSELIN
Courant Staff Writer

December 6 2002

The spirit of CBT Past met the spirit of CBT Future Thursday.

But no one was playing Scrooge at this holiday gathering.

About 75 members of the CBT Club - an alumni group of former Connecticut Bank and Trust Co. employees - gathered for their annual meeting and were buzzing about plans to charter a new bank with the old CBT name.

"It's the most exhilarating news I've seen in ages," said Mary Curtin, who was assistant to CBT's president in the 1970s. "It broke our hearts when we lost CBT."

The CBT Club has about 650 members, from branch tellers to presidents, clerks to loan officers and at Thursday's meeting in Glastonbury they swapped stories about the past and speculated about a new CBT.

A group of organizers plans to seek permission from the state to raise money for a new CBT by selling stock in a public offering. If approved, the stock would probably be sold in late spring. The bank would be based in Hartford and open in early 2004.

"No question the name has recognition value," said Wheaton Vaughan, an assistant vice president at CBT in the mid-1980s. "The CBT name will get a lot of attention."

Vaughan said the old CBT was a good organization that fell victim to the fast-paced, high-stakes growth of parent Bank of New England Corp and its chairman, CBT's Walter Connolly.

CBT collapsed in 1991 as part of BNE Corp.'s failure, the largest in New England's history. CBT's assets were seized and later sold off to Fleet Bank.

The old CBT sometimes drew mixed reviews on customer service. In the late 1980s, its lending practices and procedures also came under the scrutiny of federal regulators.

But CBT's long involvement in the community also inspired loyalty in those troubled times. In 1990, local non-profit organizations lined up to make large deposits as a sign of support.

The Old State House took out a certificate of deposit for $50,000, recognizing CBT's key role in helping to save the structure. The Old State House is now touted as a major cultural attraction in the city.

Vaughan said he's encouraged the new CBT would be led by former CBT executive and veteran local banker David A. Lentini.

"If I were around here, I'd jump on the bandwagon," said Vaughan, recently retired and living in Rhode Island. "But it's too much of a commute."

The new CBT wouldn't resemble its predecessor in size, opening with just three branches. At its height, the old CBT had 160 branches in 101 towns.

Thursday, club members - or "CBT'ers" as they call each other - recalled how the old CBT was very close-knit.

Janet Wallace, who worked as a teller in the 1950s, said lasting friendships were formed.

Wallace told of how plans for a wedding shower for a co-worker blossomed into a once-a-month get together for a group of "girls" she worked with at the bank.

"That was in the fall of 1955," Wallace said. "And the club still exists today."

Art Caffee, a 16-year CBT employee, said the CBT culture was such that it accepted - even encouraged - periodic senior management "roasts."

"It was OK to make fun of the president of this bank, and we did," Caffee said.

Lentini made an appearance Thursday to a hearty round of applause. He also took a few questions from a podium.

One person wanted to know if old BNE stock - rendered worthless in 1991 - could be traded in.

Lentini paused for a second. "Yes. For what, I don't know ..."

"It makes for great wallpaper," someone shouted out.

The room erupted in laughter.

Curtin, the former assistant to the CBT president, then presented Lentini with a plastic bag with the logo of Barney, the bow-tied character that helped introduce Connecticut to the ATM. For a decade, the state's consumers referred to any ATM as a "Barney machine."

"We're trying to bring back the Barney," Lentini said. "But there's this purple dinosaur with that name."