By Kevin Dietrich
Palmetto Banker
To give you an idea how long Bill Varn has been involved with banking, he began his career when Harry Truman sat in the White House and Strom Thurmond was an Edgefield attorney seeking the governor’s office.
This year marks Varn’s 70th in the financial services industry, all with the same institution, Enterprise Bank of South Carolina, in Ehrhardt. There are no official records, but Varn, who was named director emeritus of the Bamberg County institution in February, is believed to be the Palmetto State’s longest-serving banker ever. He spent more than 60 years as president of Enterprise Bank, beginning in 1951.
“He has been the heart and the sole of this bank for more than half a century,” said Reid Pollard, Enterprise Bank’s CEO and president. “I don’t know of anyone who has worked in banking, certainly not at one bank, for 70 years. And he has been crucial to the health of the whole Lowcountry area through his efforts at the bank and elsewhere.”
Varn, now 94, joined Enterprise Bank in 1946, after serving as a Navy test pilot during World War II.
Enterprise Bank traces its roots to 1911, when the Bank of Smoaks began operation with Varn’s father as vice president. In 1920, the Bank of Smoaks joined with the Smoaks Banking Co. and was renamed Enterprise Bank.
In 1936, at the height of the Great Depression, the bank was robbed twice, so Varn’s father decided to relocate to Ehrhardt, where there was better police protection.
Initially, Varn spent his first few years after the war farming corn, cotton and tobacco during the day, and making loans for the bank at night.
When Varn’s uncle, the bank president, died in March 1951, Varn took over. He eventually became president, CEO and chairman, before turning over the reins in 2013. He served as a full director until earlier this year, when he became director emeritus.
While Enterprise concentrates on small-business and consumer lending today, agricultural lending was the focus when Varn came aboard.
“Back then, the average farmer would borrow between $300 and $1,000 a year to operate his farm,” he said during a 2001 interview. “And we were the ones who would deliver seed and fertilizer to them.”
What was a $1 million bank when Varn took over in 1951 is today a $305 million institution, with offices spread among six counties, from Orangeburg County down to Charleston County.
Just as importantly, he’s kept Ehrhardt going, as his bank has provided jobs, loans and opportunity in the small rural town and surrounding area.
(The Palmetto Banker is a publication of the South Carolina Bankers Association.)
