Pike National Bank’s last charter employee, Diane H. Cothern, retired after 37 years of service at the end of 2022.
Cothern will be honored with a celebration consisting of hors d’oeuvres and cocktails at Fernwood Country Club from 4 to 6 p.m. Jan. 27. She remains on Pike National Bank and PCNB Corp.’s Board of Directors.
Pike National Bank opened for business Sept. 30, 1985, with just 10 employees at the time. Cothern was hired four months earlier in May 1985 while the bank was getting together shareholders and investors and preparing for opening day.
She went to work for Deposit Guaranty National Bank, now known as Regions Bank, in 1969.
Joe Sones, along with Robert Ingram, worked for Deposit Guaranty National Bank with Cothern when they founded Pike National Bank and hired her. Sones was the father of current Pike National Bank CEO and President Jennifer Wallace.
“She is my lifetime mentor,” Wallace said. “She is a role model that I have formulated my banking career from. She has taught me untold lessons on how to deal with people, how to manage people, how to be career minded and still have a homelife. She’s my lifelong work mentor. She is one of the most classy professional successful women in banking.”
Cothern worked as a teller, loan assistant, manager of certified income specialist, branch manager of the Delaware Avenue location, and loan officer for Deposit Guaranty. At Pike National Bank, Cothern has been a loan officer, compliance officer, human resources officer, supervised branch operations and held the title of executive vice president.
Pike National Bank Executive Vice President Nichole Hall has taken on many of Cothern’s responsibilities.
“She hired me 18 years ago,” Hall said. “She interviewed me and hired me. It’s kind of sentimental for me because she hired me.”
