Winner & Champion

Taller than egos, Stetsons or oil rigs, the tallest things in Texas are banks. Busting out all over in an unparalleled boom, their huge buildings dominate the skyline in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth. Texas has more banks than any other state: 968 with total deposits of $10.4 billion, combined resources of $11.6 billion. Texas bankers succeed by fighting for business like warring supermarket operators on a Saturday afternoon --while also wearing Homburg hats and speaking in muted tones. The man who best combines such Texas talents is taut, wiry, fiercely competitive Fred F. Florence, 67, head of Dallas' Republic National Bank, who for years has been locked in an epic duel with Dallas' First National Bank. The prize: the title of No. 1 bank in Texas.

Last week Banker Florence, who clinched the title this year, moved Republic out of the Texas League into national banking. First National (total deposits: $724.8 million) made the first move, upped its capital and surplus from $51.1 million to $60 million, allowing it to lend $6,000,000 at a crack. But then Florence's Republic (total deposits: $798.4 million), for the ninth time in nine years, boosted its own capital and surplus from $87 million to $100 million, jumping its single loan authority to $10 million. Republic's new total resources: $948 million, v. First National's $817 million.

Sweeping Out. Texan Florence can now compete for loans far from home, perhaps even in New York, where, he concedes, he was born. (His father left that outlandish birthplace to open an East Texas grocery when Florence was an infant.) Raised in the hamlet of Rusk, Florence began by sweeping out the local bank for $15 monthly, at 24 became president of another tiny bank in nearby Alto and later the town's mayor. When a customer asked him to handle a $40,000 purchase of stock in Dallas' Guaranty Bank & Trust Co., Florence got Guaranty to deposit the money in his Alto bank (total capital: $25,000). This enterprise got Florence a job at Guaranty, which became Republic National in 1922 and made Florence president in 1929. When he joined the bank its capital and surplus was $1,000,000. By 1944 Florence pushed it to $13 million.

Soon after he stepped in as president, Florence sent out a memo in which he said that loan officers were relying too much on statistics in granting loans, and not enough on common sense. Florence made a rule that any one officer could grant a loan, but it took more than one to turn down a borrower. "At Republic," says President Stanley Marcus of Dallas' Nieman-Marcus, "nobody thinks they're doing you a favor by lending you money. They look on banking as a commodity to sell, not a privilege."

Cleaning Up. Republic has lent $1 billion to finance oil drilling, more than any Southwest bank. Florence was a chief mover in bringing Temco Aircraft to Dallas, which in turn helped persuade Chance-Vought to come. He also helped organize Lone Star Steel Co., biggest in Texas. Partly to persuade big Texas borrowers that it was no longer necessary to go to New York, Florence gave Republic the most impressive face in Dallas--a $25 million, 40-story building sheathed in aluminum. The skyscraper has acted as a magnet to bring Dallas such other structures as the new Hotel Statler Hilton.

Fred Florence aims to make Republic far more than a bustling regional institution. Hanging in his sumptuous third-floor office is a painting of cowboys rounding up wild horses, entitled Bringing Them In. "When it comes to business," says he, "that's my motto."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.