• Hometown: Vinita, Okla.
• Family: Wife Monica
In Town: At 67, Tim Williams been involved in the banking industry for more than 40 years. Retired once from banking in 2015, he came back to the industry in 2018 when Joe Landon called and asked him to join the American Bank of Oklahoma Branch in Disney, Okla.
“I figured out (retirement) wasn’t for me,” Tim said. “I was going stir crazy, because there’s only so much grass growing to cut.”
Initially, Landon asked Tim to work three days a week. A week later, Tim added four days a week. That schedule lasted for two weeks. Tim’s been full-time ever since. He now serves on the senior loan committee and is the chief lending officer for the bank’s six branches.
Tim began his banking career as a teller at First National Bank in Vinita. He grew his career by taking “every course on banking” offered by the state associations. He also attended a banking graduate school.
“I like helping people come in with a dream,” Tim said. “I like being able to help make it a reality. We do a lot of home construction financing. There’s nothing like being able to help [a person] achieve that.”
In the Country: In addition to being in the banking industry for four decades, Tim has been in the cattle business just as long.
Tim’s 20-acre farm is located one mile north of Vinita, Okla., in Craig County. He calls it a “hobby farm” because it consists of six commercial cows and typically yields six calves each year. The couple raise grass-fed cattle supplemented by lick tubs and hay/grain in the winter.
“We don’t make enough money to supplement our income much when you take out expenses,” he said with a laugh. “But it’s something to do, to keep me out of the pool hall.”
He moved to the current farm nine years ago, after marrying his wife Monica. Prior to that he had a “little place” with 80 acres west of Vinita. In that operation he raised commercial black Angus cattle.
“I like cattle,” Tim said. “When you see a new calf, it’s just great. I think it’s the prettiest thing in the world.”
In addition to cattle, the couple also raise three miniature horses, three dogs and two cats.
Tim loves where the farm is located, because it gives them privacy and “room to do anything we want,” and because they’ve “got good neighbors.”
Monica Williams grew up in Cape Cod, Mass. Tim jokes she “shut her eyes and picked a state” when deciding where to go to college.
Oklahoma State University became her choice, because of its animal science program,which ultimately led her to land in northeast Oklahoma.
