A longtime SunTrust bank executive in Atlanta and Nashville, Thurmond opened the one-branch Nashville Bank five years ago with a goal of fostering personal banking.
"Our goal is to bring relationship banking and personal service back to the community," Thurmond said in 2004 when the bank applied for a state charter.
Thurmond was still serving as chairman of Nashville Bank & Trust when he died of complications after prostate cancer. A new chairman has not been named. He relinquished the title of CEO to Tom Stumb in July 2008.
"Everyone who works here knows that our success is attributable to his leadership," Stumb said of Thurmond on Tuesday. "He was proud of what Nashville Bank & Trust has accomplished in its first five years," Stumb said.
Today, the bank has total assets of $166 million and $132 million in loans — both categories nearly 10 percent higher than a year ago.
Thurmond had spent 35 years at SunTrust, heading up its trust management groups in Tennessee and Georgia before retiring. But he soon joined other investors in the start-up of Nashville Bank & Trust here.
"I think he just missed it," his wife, Martha, said of the decision to get involved in a new banking venture. "He wanted to handle customers like he thought it should be done. He liked helping people."
Just three weeks ago, despite feeling ill at the time, Thurmond accompanied his wife to a horse show where she would be riding. "He was adamant that I make this show," she said. "We went, and he even polished my boots."
A native of GeorgiaThurmond was born in Madison, Ga., the middle child of parents who owned a furniture store.
In Nashville, he served on the board of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee, was a member of the Belle Meade Country Club and was a generous donor to the United Way and the Canby Robinson Society of Vanderbilt University, the medical center's largest donor society.
He was also active in the Boys Clubs of Atlanta.
"He always wanted to help young boys," Martha Thurmond said, adding that he was moved when his then-young son played a baseball game against a Boys Club team that didn't have enough gloves or other equipment.
"He never forgot that," she said.
Visitation is ThursdayIn lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Donald Thurmond Memorial Fund at Saint Paul Christian Academy, 5035 Hillsboro Pike. Visitation will be Thursday from 2 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Saint Paul Christian Academy.
Contact Bonna Johnson at 615-726-5990 or bjohnson@tennessean.com.
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