Mark Harbison has officially retired. After a career of more than 44 years at Commerical Trust Co. in Fayette, Harbison left his office for the last time on Dec. 31.

Harbison, a St. Louis native, began his banking career as a teller at Comercial Trust Co. on Aug. 9, 1976, three months after graduating from Central Methodist College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration. He said one of the reasons he stayed at the bank for his entire career was because of the bank’s owner, Lew Wallace Jacobs, III. Known commonly as “Three,” Jacobs hired Harbison.

“He taught me a lot,” Harbison said. “He was a great person and a great family to work for.”

Commercial Trust is still in the hands of the Jacobs family, which opened the bank in 1903.

“Over the course of the years, many people have been integrally associated with the mission and direction of the bank, and few have made any greater contribution to Commercial Trust and the Fayette community than Mark has done,” said Janet Jacobs, the bank’s president. “He leaves Commercial Trust positioned for continued growth, innovation, and success in the future.”

Now 16,215 days after he began, Harbison finishes his career as Executive Vice President. He was formerly the bank’s CEO and continues to serve on its board of directors. Harbison said his ascension to the top ranks was part hard work and part dumb luck. “Three gave me the opportunity to do some things that needed to be done,” he said. A bit of a Jack of All Trades, one of those projects turned out to be the computerization of the bank in the early 1980s.

“I took it on. I thought it would be something interesting to do,” he said. “There was no internet, there was no telephone banking. Everything was done manually. The biggest improvement to banking has been technology.”

At that time there were other banks in Fayette, but CTC was the only commercial bank in town.

“In the early days, having a local community bank was really important,” Harbison explained. “The biggest thing is being a community bank and knowing your customers. That’s something that the Jacobs family had started long before I came in.”

Harbison’s retirement does not mean he will cease being a permanent fixture of the square, or Fayette. He will continue to serve on the bank’s board of directors.

“We are pleased that Mark will remain on the Commercial Trust Company Board of Directors, where bank management will continue to benefit from his years of practical experience, institutional memory, and innovative ideas,” said Jacobs. “Although we will miss Mark’s daily presence on the Square in Fayette, we hope the entire community will join us in thanking him for his many years of loyal service and wishing him the very best in retirement.”

Harbison is also involved heavily with Central Methodist, the Fayette Optimist Club, and the Howard County Economic Development Council among others. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.