By Gayle VanVooren
Mascot Editor  

“I can’t believe how fast the years have gone by.”
On Tuesday morning of last week, a gigantic plant from the corporate office of Bank of the West  was delivered to Lois VanDePutte,  with a note of congratulations for her 40 years of work in the banking industry.
VanDePutte is the current Financial Services Officer at Bank of the West, and hels with almost any banking need that arises. After 40 years, she has seen almost every side of the banking business.
“The biggest changes over the years have been going from the manual system to  having everything computerized,” said VanDePutte.
The Minneota bank has also changed names many times, but that hasn’t affected VanDePutte’s work.
“I was a proof operator first. I had to check every deposit that came in to make sure everything balanced and send checks to different banks,” added VanDePutte.
She remembered Beulah Olson being the supervisor at that time, and working with Delores Seifert, Diane Menken and Richard Moorse.

(Read more in The Mascot, 11-11-09)