Ed Hrabe banking on retirement after 36 years

By: 
Chuck Kajer, The New Prague Times
Ed Hrabe, vice president at First Bank and Trust in New Prague, is retiring after more than 36 years in the financial industry. (Chuck Kajer Photo)

After more than 36 years in the financial/banking industry, Ed Hrabe is calling it a career.

Hrabe was hired to manage the State Insurance Agency, operated by the State Bank of New Prague, in 1982. After a year and a half, bank president Don Sirek asked him to join the bank’s lending department. He was later promoted to assistant vice president and, in 2003, as vice president for the bank, which in 2016 became part of First Bank and Trust. Over the years he has helped thousands of customers in securing home, auto and other consumer loans.

"I’ve seen a lot of changes in my nearly 37 years," he said. "We’ve had a lot of economic swings, both good and bad, but we always made the best of it," he said. "We went from manual posting of loans in the 1980s to today’s fully automated system, with people able to pay their loans online or remotely from their smart phones."

He said that’s a good thing. "It makes it more convenient for customers. If you don’t change with the times, you’re going backward."

Ed has also been involved in the community in many different areas, and plans to continue his involvement with the New Prague Volunteer Ambulance/New Prague Emergency Medical Services, is a member of the New Prague Sportsman’s Club, has youth taught firearm safety for may years, and has been involved with the former New Prague Eagles (he was the first president of that organization) and with the Knights of Columbus, both 3rd and 4th Degree. He also serves on the Scott County Board of Adjustments. Ed is also approaching the third anniversary of a major event in his life. He received a kidney transplant on February 29, 2016. "I’d been living with kidney disease, and was on dialysis for two years," he said. Local resident Ann Sletten donated a kidney, and he was back at work just 30 days later.

"I call Ann my walking guardian angel," he said.

"I’m going to miss all the....

To see more on this story pick up the December 27, 2018 print edition of The New Prague Times. 

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