NMBA Founder Don Mattocks dies
NEW BERN, N.C. — Don Wynne Mattocks, founding president of the National Marine Bankers Association, died May 23 after a six-month battle with leukemia. He was 68.
Mattocks became the first president of the organization in 1980 at a time when lending for small recreational pleasure boats was in its early stages, according to a release from NMBA. He took his story of making profitable small boat loans at a major Atlanta bank and told it to other lenders across the U.S. in dozens of seminars and conferences. At boat builder meetings he’d educate dealers how to get their banks into boating.
A research paper he wrote at the University of Virginia banking school became the “Marine Lender’s Handbook,” used by banks, savings and loan institutions and credit unions to establish boat loan departments.
“Boat lending became a financial commodity as a direct result of the efforts and lenders and the boating industry profited extensively from his pioneering work,” NMBA said in the release. “In the decade Mattocks crusaded for boat loans, the industry expanded in annual revenues from $7 billion to $17 billion while the boat lending business is estimated to have grown from $1 billion to $5 billion annually. Making recreational boating affordable through installment loans helped middle-class families access a lifestyle that benefitted thousands of Americans.”
Mattocks served as senior vice president of retail finance for Citizens and Southern National Bank until the mid-1990s, then moved to Primus Automotive Financial Services, a division of Ford Motor Credit Company, where he also served as senior vice president based in Nashville. He retired to New Bern in 2005 but continued his involvement in the NMBA as director emeritus until he died.
Mattocks is survived by his wife Linda, a son and daughter, grandchildren and brother and sister.
Memorial contributions can be made in the name of Don W. Mattocks to Centenary United Methodist Church, P.O. Box 1388, New Bern, NC 28563.
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