Dunn Mayor Oscar Harris honored First Citizens Bank for its 90th year in business and its “significant contributions” to the city, county and community organizations in those nine decades with a proclamation.
“First Citizens Bank started with a single branch in Smithfield, North Carolina in 1898,” Harris said in his proclamation. “The bank opened its first branch outside Smithfield on May 9, 1929 in Dunn … with E.H. Mahone serving as vice president and Howard M. Lee being the first customer to open an account with the branch.”
R.P. Holding, who became the bank’s president and chairman of the board in the ’30s, started working at First Citizens as a cashier in the early 20th century, Harris said. His grandchildren lead the company today with Frank Holding Jr. serving as the bank’s chairman and CEO and Holding’s sister, Hope Holding Bryant, serving as its vice chairman.
“Today, First Citizens Bank is one of the largest family-controlled banks in the United States,” Harris said.
The mayor called the branch a “leader” in the city’s downtown revitalization efforts, “incorporating the design for the overall revitalization project” into its “improvement plan, paving the way to the beautiful historic downtown Dunn that we enjoy today.”
The city wished the business “continued success” in the proclamation.
-The Daily Record
