Ilion High School - Class of 1905

Utica Observer - September 30, 1959

Powers Heads Board in Merger Ilion Bank, Marine Midland

Article 10

Powers Heads Board in Merger Ilion Bank, Marine Midland

The merger of the Ilion National Bank & Trust Co. into the Marine Midland Trust Co. of the Mohawk Valley became effective this afternoon.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, Leo H. Powers, previously president of the Ilion bank, became a member of the board of Marine Midland and chairman of the Ilion advisory board and finance committee.

The former directors of the Ilion National Bank & Trust Co. who now constitute the Ilion advisory board are: Powers, president, Ilion Savings & Loan Assn.; Harold E. Day, Thomas W. Harrison, Fred J. O'Donnell, attorney; Grover W. Radley, Albert W. Schneider, attorney; Kenneth A. Tillinghast and LeRoy B. Williams.

Theodore Rokahr, board chairman of Marine Midland, announced that his board had elected these officers to serve at the Ilion office: Tillinghast, vice president and manager; J. Franklin Young, assistant vice president; Peter B. Cranney, assistant treasurer; Walter P. GriswoJd and Marian T. Green, assistant secretaries, and A. Margaret Ferguson, assistant trust officer.

Rokahr said all other members of the Ilion staff would continue to serve customers of the new Ilion office as they have in the past. Depositors may continue using their present supply of checks, deposit tickets, bank books, etc.

Powers, active in business and civic affairs in Ilion, is president of the Ilion Savings & Loan Assn. with which, he has been associated for the past 55 years.

He is a past president of the Ilion Community Club, Ilion Conversation Club and Little Theater Club of Ilion. He has been chairman of the Draft Board for 19 years, is a director of the Savings Assn. of New York State and one of its oldest active executives, a member of the Fort Schuyler Club of Utica and the Mohawk Valley Country Club. He is a former vice president of the General Herkimer Council, Boy Scouts, and former village and county tennis champion.

Tillinghast has been connected with the Ilion National Bank & Trust Co. since 1929. He became cashier in 1944, was elected director in 1955 and executive vice president in 1957.

During World War II he served in the Navy. He is past grand knight and a member of the Knights of Columbus, Loyal Order of Moose and American Legion. He is a member of the board of governors of the Ilion Community Club; secretary and treasurer of the Conversation Club, a director of the Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Volunteer Fire Department

He is district chairman, General Herkimer Council, Boy Scouts; treasurer and member of board, Ilion Free Public Library; treasurer, Salvation Army, and vice president, Oneida-Herkimer Bankers Assn. In 1955, he received a Citizenship Award from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.