Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 26, 1994 TAG: 9410260026
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The new chief executive officer will be Benjamin Jenkins, president of First Union Corp.'s subsidiary banks in Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Dalhouse said he will retire at the end of the month in which he reaches his 62nd birthday. The transition of the CEO title to Jenkins, Dalhouse said, "will assure continuity of the success First Union has generated during the past year and a half," since it acquired Roanoke-based Dominion Bankshares Corp.
Until his retirement, Dalhouse will remain chairman of the three-bank operation and its board of directors. He also continues as a member of the board of directors of the parent company.
The change will give Jenkins full responsibility for operation of the three banks, starting next year. Jenkins has been president of the three-bank unit since March 1993, when First Union acquired Dominion Bankshares. Dalhouse had been chief executive officer of Dominion since 1981 and chairman since 1989.
Dalhouse said an 18-month transition between the time he gives up the title and the date of his retirement "is normal in this kind of business." The effect of decisions lingers in a company for up to 18 months, he said, so it is "a normal and usual thing to be doing" to turn over operating decisions in advance of retirement.
Jenkins, he said, "is running the company now." Dalhouse said he does not want legal responsibility for daily operations.
For the past 15 years, Dalhouse said, he has targeted 62 as the age at which he would like to retire. The merger with First Union, he said, assured that it could be done.
As a student at Roanoke College, he said, he picked up the bank's mail every morning and worked the mailing machine every afternoon. Later, as a student at the University of Virginia, he worked for the bank during every vacation and every holiday break.
"That's raising inertia to the level of an art form," he said of his 44-year career.
Dalhouse was employed by First National Exchange Bank, Dominion's predecessor, in June 1956 immediately upon his graduation from UVa. He held a variety of positions, rising to the presidency in January 1977. He became president of Dominion Bankshares, the parent corporation, in January 1981.
Dalhouse has been active in a wide range of community organizations, notably Center in the Square, the Chamber of Commerce and the advisory board of the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.
Jenkins, in addition to the Dominion acquisition, led First Union through its acquisition of McLean-based First American Metro Corp. in June 1993 and oversaw significant First Union growth in the Roanoke Valley, particularly in credit, debit and ATM card operations and mortgage operations in 1993 and 1994.
During Jenkins' tenure as president, First Union also has expanded the banking products available to customers. He was president of First Union National Bank of Georgia from 1987 to 1992. Before that, he was president and chief executive officer of First Union National Bank of South Carolina. He joined First Union in 1971.
by CNB