When Denver cable industry pioneer Bill Daniels decided to launch a bank exclusively for youngsters in 1987, he tapped Linda Childears to lead it.
At the time, she was a 37-year-old banking consultant who specialized in helping startup banks. Daniels saw her as the natural leader he needed to help him bring a dream to life.
The self-made billionaire wanted to teach children of all economic backgrounds the power of money and thought a bank for kids was an ideal vehicle.
At first Childears was baffled by the bank’s concept. How could a bank make money by offering small-balance checking and savings accounts and making very few loans?
“I couldn’t understand how it would work,” said Childears, now 55. “It clicked the day I realized Bill didn’t want to make money from it.”
After making his fortune heading Daniels & Associates, Daniels spent more than a decade giving money away. At Young Americans Bank, he wanted to start a model institution that could be copied by corporations throughout the country, and Childears had the experience to do it.
In the process, they developed what she describes as “a father-daughter relationship” that continues beyond the grave. Five years after Daniels’ death, Childears has been tapped to head the $1.1 billion philanthropic organization he founded in 1997.
When Childears moves across the street to the Daniels Fund on Aug. 1, she will leave the nation’s only state-chartered bank exclusively for people under 21. During her watch:
The bank grew from a nationally publicized oddity with 2,000 customers to a financial institution with $13.1 million in total deposits and 14,700 accounts in 2004.
Two new offices were opened – in Wray, near the Colorado-Kansas border, and in Lakewood’s Belmar district.
A capital campaign raised $16 million to move the nonprofit’s headquarters from leased space to a building it owns at 3550 E. First Ave.
Two innovative financial literacy programs were developed that are now available to fifth- and seventh-graders at 370 schools across Colorado.
An advanced curriculum is being designed that helps schools open student-run businesses on their campuses. In 2006, students at up to 15 Colorado schools will run them, learning firsthand about balance sheets, profit margins and how to manage co-workers.
At the Daniels Fund, Childears will be responsible for overseeing grants to groups Daniels felt especially close to – alcoholics, disadvantaged children, the homeless and the elderly. Her close friendship with Daniels left her uniquely qualified to carry out his wishes, said John Saeman, the Daniels Fund board chairman who ran Daniels’ business empire from 1972 to 1988.
“Bill admired her because she is an articulate spokeswoman,” he said. “She is very bright and has passion. Linda knows what Bill’s missions are, and they were of like mind.”
Building on a vision
Childears got her first look at Daniels in 1987, after his longtime business associate Phil Hogue hired her as a consultant for Young Americans.
“My first impression of Bill was an immediate warmth that put people at ease,” Childears recalls.
By then she had been in banking almost two decades. She started at 19 as a bookkeeper and moved quickly to assistant vice president of operations at the First National Bank of Bear Valley. Although she never graduated from college, she moved to the bank’s parent, First National Bank Corp., as vice president. In 1983 she opened a new bank in Littleton.
Childears was working as a banking consultant in 1986 when Hogue tapped her for the children’s bank. She was charged with setting up its operations – everything from processing checks to hiring staff.
The bank opened Aug. 3, 1987, to a crush of national media and fanfare. Within the first three weeks 2,000 kids had signed up, forcing the bank to borrow 25 tellers from other Denver banks to accommodate its high number of patrons.
“Bill paid attention to the marketing side, because he wanted people to pay attention to the idea,” Childears said. She took care of day-to-day things, including early wake-up calls.
Within the first year, an armed robber marched up to the kid-sized counters, flashed a small black handgun and made off with a drawer full of money. And in the mid-1990s, an employee embezzled money from the bank.
“I learned you can never take your eye off the ball,” Childears said.
Hogue, now a member of the Daniels Fund’s board of directors, credits her long-term success at the bank to experience and natural leadership skills.
“She is very smart and works hard,” he said. “Bill was proud of Linda and the work she did at (Young Americans). When she took over at the bank, it was a concept. It took someone with the commitment and vision to realize the potential.”
That potential emerged as Childears launched the educational programs and opened branches.
Said Hogue, “It was a continual effort of, ‘What else can we do?”‘
Students get the chance to play entrepreneur at Young AmeriTowne and International Towne, for example, two 8,000- square-foot mock cities built on the bank’s second floor. During four-hour sessions in them, kids can take on roles such as a car mechanic, grocery store owner or even mayor.
“I’ve talked to students who said (AmeriTowne) was the best part of their year,” said Cindy Stevenson, superintendent of Jefferson County Schools. “It creates kids who have a sense of responsibility.”
More than half of all Jeffco elementary students will participate in the program next year. Stevenson credits Childears with making it all possible.
“She is a driver,” Stevenson said. “She had a vision, and she achieved it.”
Caring for a legacy
Daniels acted as wedding planner in 1995 when Childears got married. He designed an elaborate ceremony for her and Don Childears, president of the Colorado Bankers Association, whom she met while the pair served on its board.
That close relationship continued, and when Daniels died in 2000, she said it was “like losing my father again.”
That bond with Daniels left her uniquely positioned as the only candidate considered for the Daniels Fund position.
“She stands up to people, and people who stood up to Bill got his respect,” Saeman said. “It was Bill’s experience and confidence in Linda that manifested itself to me and the board.”
The fund is the Rocky Mountain region’s largest charitable foundation, with $1.1 billion in assets. It provides grants and scholarships in Denver and across the Rocky Mountain region. It also gives grants to nonprofits to combat alcoholism and homelessness and to improve education and ethics.
“Everything that Daniels supports was a part of his life experience,” Saeman said.
Daniels grew up in New Mexico, where he won two Golden Gloves boxing titles in his youth. He served as a fighter pilot in World War II, launched his first cable operation in Wyoming and owned a professional basketball team in Utah.
His ultimate passion was people, Childears said.
Childears said taking over at the Daniels Fund is a natural move that will make use of her organizational skills, her understanding of nonprofits and her ability to identify talented people.
“To be at the Daniels Fund feels like the next step for me,” Childears said. “Everywhere I go I see Bill’s legacy, and caring for that legacy will be a real treat.”
Staff writer Will Shanley can be reached at 303-820-1473 or wshanley@denverpost.com.
