As far as bank managers go, Norman Mills placed high value on ensuring every little detail was right.
During a 40-year career with the Otago Savings Bank and its other designations, his meticulous nature was demonstrated when he compiled staff instruction manuals and when he pulled other staff up for long-winded account documents.
"I'm critical when it comes to grammar," he said.
"The more complex you make it, people will find exceptions and their way around things."
The Invercargill retiree was one of about 150 former staff who came together in Alexandra over the weekend for a reunion of the Otago Savings Bank (OSB), originally known as as the Dunedin Savings Bank, when it was founded in 1864.
Ex-employees as far as Queensland travelled to Central Otago for the occasion, which included a buffet dinner and the sharing of work stories.
During his tenure, which began in 1948 at the then Dunedin Savings Bank, Mr Mills observed significant changes in the banking industry besides mergers and name changes. He worked in several branches in the Otago region and also had a stint at the South Canterbury Savings Bank branch in Timaru.
One of his duties when he first started was changing the ink blotters and pen nibs.
"I didn't quite come from the quill pen era but more the pen and ink era.
"The North Dunedin branch, everything was hand-written and there was no adding machine," he said.
"You would just write it up in a big cash book which weighed half a bloody tonne. You learned how to add."
This also made him an ideal person to draft cricket club reports when all "his work was up to date" despite the attention of the general manager.
The biggest transformation was the introduction of decimal currency in 1967.
"It was just a case of getting it done in time. It involved quite a bit of organisation."
He eventually moved into a role as an internal auditor within OSB.
In 1984, the OSB along with 11 other regional banks around New Zealand adopted the trustee name. The bank would be known as Trust Bank Otago by 1987.
The bank was part of an acquisition by Australian banking giant Westpac in 1996 to become Westpac Trust. The "trust" component of the name was phased out by 2002.
Mr Mills retired in 1988, after four decades in the industry. Along with the banking-customer relationship which he believes is now a thing of the past, summertime visits to the country branches were a part of the job he recalls fondly.
"It always meant I could have a round of golf after work.
"I had a pretty good run."
