Jim Hamby, a longtime fixture in the Ada community and current president of Vision Bank-Ada since 1990, will be honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award on Friday, May 10 as East Central University conducts its 2019 Evening of Honors and Recognition at 6:30 p.m. in ECU Foundation Hall of the Chickasaw Business and Conference Center.
A reception will be held prior to the event at 6 p.m. Awards will also be presented to Distinguished Former Faculty, Distinguished Service and Distinguished Family as well as the recognition of three Centennial Endowments by the ECU Foundation, Inc.
Hamby has not only served as Vision Bank president for nearly 30 years, he has served as president of both the Ada Chamber of Commerce and Ada Jobs Foundation.
Graduating from Weleetka High School in 1969, Hamby attended ECU from 1969-1973, graduating with a B.S. in education with a major in chemistry and a minor in biology. While at ECU, he was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity along with participating in the Interfraternity Council. He still continues his support as an alumni advisor for the Pikes.
Hamby was in the Army ROTC where he served as a Cadet Corp Commander, was a member of the Pershing Rifles, awarded the DAR Award and was honored as a Distinguished Military Graduate. He was ECU’s first ROTC graduate to be commissioned as a Second Lieutenant upon graduation.
After serving in the Army in the 1st Calvary Division from 1973-1977, Hamby launched his banking career as a teller at the First National Bank of Temple, Texas. He later left the bank to obtain an MBA from Baylor University in 1980. He then worked for MBank in Dallas, the largest bank in Texas at the time, where he became a commercial loan officer.
He returned to Ada in 1983 as executive vice president and chief lending officer for the First National Bank and Trust Company, which is now Vision Bank. He became president and CEO in 1990 and continues to serve in that capacity.
Since being back in Ada, Hamby has actively been involved in organizations at ECU. He was a trustee of the Briles Educational Trust from 1990-95 and administered turning it over to the ECU Foundation, Inc. He was on the Finance Committee of the ECU Foundation for numerous years and served several terms on the Board of Trustees and was president of the ECU Foundation twice.
Besides his presidency with the Ada Chamber of Commerce and Ada Jobs Foundation, Hamby has been a board member of the Ada Industrial Development Corporation, plus founding president of the Tri-County Community Development Corporation. He was chairman of the committee that passed the sales tax and obtained grants to build the Pontotoc County Agri-Plex.
Hamby served on the board of the Southern Oklahoma Addiction Recovery and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Jasmine Moran Children’s Museum in Seminole.
Professionally, Hamby has been instrumental in the Oklahoma Bankers Association where he served three terms on the board. Vision Bank was selected three times as outstanding bank in its class during the last 20 years of his leadership. He was elected as the Outstanding Banker in Oklahoma in 2005. He has served on and chaired many OBA committees and schools and was a board member for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Topeka, Kansas for 16 years.
Nationally, Hamby has been involved in numerous capacities with the American Bankers Association including the Administration Committee of the Community Bankers Council, the ABA’s Federal Home Loan Bank Committee and the ABA’s Government Relations Committee, serving as grass roots spokesman. In that capacity, he testified before Congress and spoke at the Heritage Foundation concerning the Dodd Frank Banking Bill. He also served six years on the Mortgage Roundtable, which is a 20-member think tank for the mortgage industry.
Hamby resides in Ada with his wife Shelley and has three daughters and five grandchildren. He is a member of the Lions Club of Ada and has been for 38 years and is an active member of Ada First Baptist Church. His hobbies include golfing, fishing, hunting and skeet shooting.
Sponsorships are available at various levels for the event.
A Gold Sponsorship for $2,000 includes tickets and prime seating for eight attendees, event signage, recognition in program (printed and verbal), acknowledgement in press releases, drink tickets and gift for each attendee.
A Silver Sponsorship for $1,000 consists of ticket seating for eight attendees, recognition in the program, acknowledge in press releases, drink tickets and a gift for each attendee.
A Bronze Sponsorship for $150 includes tickets and guaranteed seating for two, recognition in the program, drink tickets and a gift for each attendee.
Individual tickets are also available at $60 each. Advance tickets are recommended.
To register, contact Ashia Hillman at ahillman@ecok.edu or at 580-559-5651 or go online at ecok.edu/2019EOH.
The registration deadline is April 30.
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