Ozarks Profile: Joann Harral

Springfield Teachers Credit Union has about 2,600 members now. Our members are employees of area schools and their families. We offer savings and loans. There are three of us who operate the credit union. Sammie K. Hermann is the operations manager and Rick Maness is vice president. Having hired these two special people to work with me has made this a wonderful job to come to in the morning.

We’re told that the credit union threw a big party to celebrate your 30 years of service. How was it?

It was very nice, with customers, and the board was there. That’s another group of people that’s very important to the credit union. We have the most wonderful board of directors in the world, led by board chairwoman Sue Groves.

How did you come to work at Springfield Teachers Credit Union?

I’ve worked in banking for more than 50 years. I worked at a bank here in town, and a gentleman, Wayne Andrews, that I go to church with in Fair Grove was the chairman of the board for the credit union. He knew I was in banking. They needed two people, and they had hired a young man, and he asked me if I would come and talk to the board, and I did. They hired me right away. By the time I came, the gentleman that they had hired to be the president (of the credit union) was gone. He couldn’t handle it. At that time, we were doing old-fashioned bookkeeping with journals and things of that nature, and everything had to be figured by hand, all of the percentages and everything. I had been working with a lady named Jeannie Rimmer Grier in the bank, and she was an officer there. She had mentioned to me that she might like to make a change, so when I found out they were looking for a president, I mentioned her name, and they contacted her, and they hired her too. When she retired in 2000, by virtue of the fact that I had been with the credit union for 25 years, they moved me up to serve as president.

What’s kept you in banking for all these years?

What I like about it is that I have a natural affinity for numbers, and I enjoy working with numbers. What has kept me here (at the credit union), is that I absolutely love my customers. They’re my friends, and I know most of them by name and by number. It’s just very important to me to stay here. If I retired back when I was eligible to retire, I would’ve probably gone somewhere else anyway. Why go somewhere else when you love what you’re doing?

You mentioned once having to do everything by hand. Has technology changed your job much?

Quite a bit, actually. We have more time to spend with our customers now that we’re all automated, and we have time to sit and talk to them when they come in, and enjoy the job more.

What goals are you working on for the credit union?

Well, actually, it’s the same thing we’ve been working on since I became president. We never were much of a loaning institution, and we have tripled our loan amount in the last three years. We’re just working to try to serve our customers better and to make it easier for them to get loans, which has really paid off. (Our loan amount) is still very low. We still don’t have as many loans as we would like, so we’re still working on that. Just serving our customers better. We want to do everything we can to help them.

Tell us about your family.

I am married to a retired teacher, Hubert L. Harral. He taught English at Kickapoo for many years. He’s been retired for a little more than 10 years now. I have one daughter, Jana Fox, who lives in Jefferson City and is married to the basketball coach at Jefferson City High School. She works full time for her church as the music director. I have two absolutely awesome grandchildren. My grandson is a sophomore at Central Methodist this year, and my granddaughter is a senior at Jefferson City High School. I had three children, but two of my children were killed in an auto accident when they were 22 and 24. I just thank God for my one daughter who’s left, who has given me grandchildren.