Oral history interview with Clifford C. Sommer

Titles: Oral history interview with Clifford C. Sommer (Supplied title)

Description: BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION: Mr. Clifford Sommer was born May 25, 1908, in Minneapolis. He grew up in Rush City, where he began his banking career at the Rush City State Bank, where his father worked. Soon afterward he moved to Minneapolis where he worked for Midland Bank. Sommer graduated from the University of Minnesota, and later attended the Minnesota College of Law for two years and graduated from the Stonier School of Banking at Rutger's University. He moved to Owatonna in 1955 to become president of Security State Bank & Trust Co. He was a state senator from 1967 to 1970. In 1971, just before retirement from Northwest Bancorporation, he and his wife moved back to Minneapolis. Sommer was on the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners (1953-55), member of the American Legion and many other community organizations. He was elected president of the American Bankers Association in 1970 and previously served as vice president. SUBJECTS DISCUSSED: Sommer talks about his background in banking and having a father who was in banking seventy-six years and working in both independent (Rush City State Bank and Midland Bank in Minneapolis) and group banks (Midland Bank and Security State Bank & Trust Co, Owatonna). He discusses the differences between independent and group bankers and institutions, his role as the first holding company banker to be president of the American Bankers Association, banking during the Great Depression, the chartering of new banks, the relation of a bank to its holding company, banking's obligation to serve the public, Midwest vs. Eastern banking, presenting the opening talk at an International Monetary Conference in Munich, potential for growth of holding companies in the Midwest, state banking, negotiation on passing a Minnesota bill which forbad state banks charging an exchange, savings and loans (share accounts and their ability to branch), electronic funds transfer, inequalities in legislative treatment toward financial institutions, dynamics of relationship bwteen customer and instituion, loans to early shopping centers, real estate experience, personal expertise in stocks and loans and Regulation U. COMMENTS ON INTERVIEW: An interview covering the broader life and career of Sommer is also available. It was conducted by Cheryl Thies and James Fogerty in the same year.

Dates

• 04/04/1978 (Creation)

Creation

• interviewee: Sommer, Clifford C.
• interviewer: Fogerty, James E.

Identifiers

• Library Call Number: OH 4
• Accession Number: AV1993.161

Credit: Digitized with support from the Ken and Nina Rothchild Endowed Fund for Business History and Women's History.

Holding Type: Oral History - Interview

Quantity: 3 hours sound cassette 34 pages transcript

Format

• Content Category: sound recordings
• Content Category: text

Measurements

• 02:22:02 running time

Subjects