If it is true that no good deed goes unpunished, then veteran regional banker David MacFarland may be in a great deal of trouble. His willingness to step up to the plate as recipient of the Man of the Year in Dutchess County honor from the Hudson Valley Council of Boy Scouts of America next Thursday will expose MacFarland to the tender mercies of the master of ceremonies, sheriff Butch Anderson, whose keen knowledge of where the local bodies might be buried is matched by his willingness, when pressed by a good cause, to voice his suspicions.
Anderson’s suspicions in regard to MacFarland are painfully clear. “He is just a little figure who sits on the top of a large pyramid,” the sheriff explains. “All the people who work under him do wonderful work, and they let him get all the credit for it.”
MacFarland will receive the Boy Scouts’ 2008 Dutchess County Distinguished Citizen Award at a dinner next Thursday, June 19, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Grandview in Poughkeepsie.
If MacFarland, chief executive officer of Poughkeepsie-based Riverside Bank, has a weakness, it isn’t that he’s uninvolved in local organizational life. “People have got to give back,” he said simply.
The 18 business and professional organizations in which MacFarland currently plays a leadership role is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of his involvement. Though his chief interest in his 45-year local banking career has always been economic development, the dizzying array of other cultural, youth, educational, health-related, charitable, business and professional groups he’s helped lead goes beyond the impressive. That he has also managed successfully to lead a $150-million local commercial bank as chief executive officer for the past nine years is as much miracle as mystery.
But Anderson is unimpressed. “It’s true he has this 45-page resume of accomplishments, but most people don’t look to see that it begins when he’s three years old.”
The honoree is chairman of Patterns for Progress, director for the Orange County Partnership, director for the Orange County Community College, board member for the Newburgh-Stewart Empire Zone, a director for the Dutchess Regional Chamber of Commerce, and a past chairman for St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital.
Even a man of such high public visibility as MacFarland is not untouched by how the community character of the region has changed and is still changing. It’s not the same community now as it was 45 years ago, he says, and he doesn’t think it’ll ever be the same. He used to know everyone when he went into local restaurants. Now, he says, he recognizes very few faces.
MacFarland, a Newburgh native, worked in a variety of local positions for Norstar Bank and then Fleet Bank (now part of Bank of America) for 31 years. From 1994 to 2000 he was executive vice president of Premier National Bank, a regional commercial bank that was eventually swallowed by M&T. He then joined Riverside Bank.
The Distinguished Citizen Award is presented to individuals who exemplify in their daily lives the ideals found within the Boy Scout movement. Said Diego Aviles, director of development for the Hudson Valley Boy Scouts Council. “We are delighted about the opportunity to honor and recognize Dave for his outstanding achievements and commitment to the community.”
The Hudson Valley Council, Boy Scouts of America currently serves more than 9300 young people annually. To purchase last-minute tickets, please contact Aviles at 497-7337, extension 318.
More than $35,000 has already been raised without a single invitation in the mail from the committee. “This no doubt will be the event to be at in 2008,” said event chairman and insurance executive Austin ‘Brud’ Hodgkins Jr., a Riverside Bank board member. “Dave is well loved on both sides of the river. There could be some 400 people in attendance to recognize Dave.”
Sheriff Anderson relishes the opportunity to “recognize” MacFarland in his own special way. “I’ll be waiting for him,” he says cheerfully.