By FRED KRONER
Marci Wireman’s retirement as branch manager at First Mid Bank & Trust will impact more than the bank’s customers, who will no longer have access to her friendly smile and unlimited expertise.
It will have an effect on staff, who will no longer have their trusted confidant, friend and colleague to share stories and life.
Elisha Walters has worked in the same building as Wireman for more than 20 years. Marcy Sutton has spent the last 14 years as an associate of Wireman.
“She is a helper and she cares about people,” Walters said. “What you see is what you get, never deviating from who she truly is as a person.
“She’s approachable and fun, and our customers have always appreciated how much she’s been there to help them.”
A career in banking wasn’t the first choice for Wireman, who joined 35 others in graduating from LaCrosse (Ind.) High School.
“I was going to be a teacher,” Wireman said.
She discounted that idea and will retire on March 4 after 30 years in banking. First Mid will host an afternoon open house in her honor from 1-4 p.m. on that Friday.
“I can honestly say that she has been the best boss I’ve ever had and I will certainly miss her,” Sutton said. “She has always been my ‘go-to’ for work and personal issues.
“We have shared a lot of our lives. Our kids are all the same ages, husbands with health scares, and we have enjoyed becoming grandmas along the way.”
When Wireman and her husband, Stoney, moved to Champaign County in the summer of 1989, her first job was in retail.
“I started at Kohl’s for about two weeks,” she said, “and then I got a job I had applied for at Champion Federal (in Champaign), and it clicked.”
Thirty working years later – Wireman took a few years off until her daughters Maci and Mandy were in school – she is leaving a profession she has come to love.
“As a kid, I would go in the bank and think it was really cool,” Wireman said. “I like banking and helping the customers, some through really rough spots.”
The opportunity to spend time with her granddaughers, 4-year-old Maren and 1-year-old Evie, was all the enticement she needed to start retirement.
Her dedication has been unwavering.
“It’s easy to describe Marci consistently in and outside of work,” Walters said. “Banking can be so much more than taking a deposit or cashing a check, and Marci has consistently gone above and beyond to support her customers with whatever they need.
“She’s made house calls for customers who can’t make it in, answered calls on her personal phone or even Facebook messenger about banking.
“Even when she goes to the grocery store, she’s often stopped to talk and assist with banking questions. People trust her and know that with her, they will feel taken care of.”
One example of Wireman’s commitment was making trips to Bridle Brook Assisted Living and Memory Care Community to assist customers with their banking needs.
“I love going out in the community,” Wireman said.
She has also spoken to classes at the high school and the junior high school about banking, such as filling out deposit slips, and the importance of opening a savings account.
Wireman is an institution at First Mid. She has worked at the building since it opened in the summer of 1993 as People’s Bank.
After a year, she left temporarily to be a stay-at-home mom.
“One day, I came through the drive-up and they asked if I was ready to come back,” Wireman said.
She was, and for most of the last quarter-century, the building on East Oak Street has been her work home.
Some days, she missed the unexpected excitement.
In 2020, she was on her lunch break when a customer poured his change – and more – into the bank’s change-counting machine.
“The tellers told me a bullet went off in the machine and made the loudest boom,” Wireman said.
There were no casualties. To people.
“It killed the machine,” Wireman said. “We got a brand new machine.”
Another time, an after-hours customer tried to navigate the drive-through with a U-Haul, which got lodged and damaged the canopy.
Walters considers Wireman as much more than a work colleague.
“We always catch up on each other’s personal lives, swapping funny stories about her grandbabies and my little girl,” Walters said. “I will miss being able to take a jab at her about her being almost old enough to be my mom.
“She has been there for every up and down, every career growth opportunity and I’ll miss having that cheerleader in the corner office. She’s been that for so many, not just me.”
Wireman has worked her way up, starting on the teller line before becoming the head customer service representative and eventually the teller supervisor.
For more than a decade now, she has served as the branch manager.
“She’s watched me grow up and evolve, and I’ve even watched her daughters grow up, coming into the bank for Dairy Queen money and now calling to ask her about real grown-up things,” Walters said. “That’s the beauty of working with people that mutually care about each other.
“They make it so much easier to get through the tough days at work, and overall just make work more enjoyable.”
All of which will make saying goodbye much more of a challenge.
“We’re like a big family,” Wireman said. “Leaving will be hard. Just because you’re at work doesn’t mean you don’t talk outside of work or do things together.”
Sutton is grateful for Wireman’s compassionate and caring sides.
“My mom was in and out of the hospital before passing away shortly after I started working here,” Ssuton said. “She was amazing at guiding me in what I needed to do as far as banking and my mom’s accounts, and much more.
“She and the bank rallied behind me. They were extremely supportive. My kids were young, in junior high at the time, and I was trying to pack up my mom’s apartment to get her things moved out.
“The bank took a big tray of lunch meats and groceries including bread, cheeses, chips, soda, milk and more to my house so my kids would have easy foods and I had one less thing to worry about.”
Sutton said she will miss her colleague.
“She is always laughing and having fun, making the best out of every situation,” Sutton said. “I am not one that likes to socialize much after work, but the stories I’ve heard are just hilarious.
“She enjoys being the life of the party and people love to gravitate to be around her. She is everyone’s best friend.”
Wireman said banking has taken a different look over the years.
“When I started here, you knew everybody and didn’t worry,” Wireman said, “but 9/11 really changed things.
“Now even if we know them, we make sure they are not being scammed. You’re not only protecting the bank, you’re also protecting the customer.”
Though Wireman was raised in northwest Indiana, she grew up as an Indiana Hoosier fan.
Relocating to central Illinois only changed one aspect of her allegiance.
“I’m a Hoosier and basketball is in my blood,” Wireman said, “but being here made me get into the Illini.”
She and her husband Stoney have season tickets to the home UI men’s basketball games.
It’s an experience she enjoys.
“I was an Indiana fan growing up, but I didn’t get to any games,” Wireman said.
When not working or watching basketball, Wireman does her part to contribute to the community. She is a former Board Member for the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce.
Around the Christmas holidays, she can be found ringing bells for the Salvation Army at Schnucks or Prairie Gardens.
It fits her personality.
“I’m a talker and I’ve made so many relationships being part of the community,” Wireman said, “and the relationships are not just when I’m here (at the office).
“When I’m out and about, I can walk up to someone and say, ‘How are you doing?’”
Walters said she will feel happiness and sadness when Wireman retires.
“There will definitely be a missed presence when Marci isn’t in the office every day,” Walters said. “I will miss seeing her in the office, but I am beyond happy she will have this time to spend with her husband, her daughters, and her granddaughters that have brought her and Stoney so much joy.”
Wireman is already starting on a new schedule: how to spend her days.
“The first Monday, I will sleep in and chill,” she said. “On Wednesdays and every other Friday, I will babysit.
“When the weather is warmer, I look forward to getting out in my yard. It will be weird to get up and not have a schedule to go to work.”
As she prepares for her final exit in March, Sutton said that Wireman will be taking along with her heartfelt feelings of love and support.
“I wish her lots of happiness, joy and laughter in her new future adventures,” Sutton said.
