Business View Magazine | December 2020

170 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 SUPER IOR CREDI T UNION done this if we were still working with paper files, it would have been impossible,” he says. “Little did we know that COVID was going to hit, but thank goodness we went paperless, or we would have had a really difficult time servicing the mortgages and borrowers that we have been able to service.” Expanding into new metropolitan areas has also helped with that, but so too has a philosophy that revolves around looking out for the best interests of members and supporting the communities they live in. Superior Credit Union began more than six decades ago in Lima, Ohio, taking its name from a funeral coach and school bus manufacturer called Superior Coach Corporation. A charter was signed in October 1954 creating the Superior Coach Employees Federal Credit Union. The first office was located inside the Superior Coach plant along East Kibby Street in Lima, Ohio, and moved to a house across the street in 1972. When the Superior Coach Corporation closed in 1981, the credit union had about 2,500 members and $4.5 million in assets. At that time, the Board of Directors lobbied the National Credit Union Administration and obtained a community charter. This was the first community charter granted in a city with more than 50,000 residents. Letters of support from 40 local businesses helped convince the National Credit Union Administration to grant the charter, as did the closure of another local employer, Clark Equipment Company and its credit union, Circle Diamond Credit Union – an entity with 1,000 members and $1 million in assets. The two credit unions merged, forming Lima Superior Community Credit Union, and membership was expanded to all residents of Lima, Ohio. Membership expansion continued to residents outside of Lima in the 1990s. A second branch opened in 1991 and the first off-site ATM came two years later. Superior Credit Union’s first major leadership Phil Buell, CEO of Superior Credit Union