TTCU Breaks Ground on New Headquarters
FIRST DIG: Tim Lyons, TTCU president and chief executive officer, along with TTCU executives and board members joined community dignitaries to break ground for the new facility June 25. From left are Shelby Beil, chief financial officer; Doug Aldrich, executive vice president/chief operations officer; Dan Bowling, chief information officer; Lyons; Laura Miller, chief human resources officer; Stephanie Jones, chief risk officer; and Charles Chastain, sr. vice president of lending.
On June 25, The Credit Union officially broke ground on its new corporate headquarters. Located at 9815 E. 81st St. in Tulsa, next to the Southeast branch, the six-story, 90,000-square-foot facility will complement existing facilities, provide strategic options for the continued growth of the credit union as well as provide an ideal work environment for hardworking employees who serve the membership daily. As the “central nervous system” of the institution, the new headquarters will enable the team to provide even greater levels of service to the existing membership and to expand membership in years to come.
“TTCU has been serving northeast Oklahoma for more than 80 years, and we are committed to carrying that level of service into the next 80 years,” says Tim Lyons, President/CEO. “With this facility, we are setting the stage for to continue delivering extraordinary service and value by offering state of the art services and technologies that are relevant to the financial needs of our members.”
To make this vision a reality, has chosen NewGround to head up the architectural design of the facility, which will represent a significant new fixture on the Tulsa landscape. The exterior elements of brick, steel and glass will speak to tradition, yet be very modern in appearance. The goal of being a transparent business will be manifested in the selection of materials and placement of elements to align with TTCU’s mission to be “the trusted source for financial solutions.”
Expected completion is late 2016.
History
A cigar box in the right-hand desk drawer in Miss Wilson’s room is the story of how Tulsa Teachers Credit Union, with its handful of school teacher founders and assets of $1,600, grew to become The Credit Union, with 115,000 members and assets over $1.5 billion.
Established in 1934 as Tulsa Teachers Credit Union, was founded in the midst of the Great Depression. Little money was to be had, and the few banks that had money weren’t lending it out. Despite hard times and little money, education did not grind to a halt. Earning salaries as little as $100 a month, while still expected to dress in suits and ties and proper dresses, no group of professionals needed financial services more than teachers.
Thus, the creation of Tulsa Teachers Credit Union – a new financial cooperative that was different than a bank, because it was not-for-profit and owned by its members.
The credit union had a very humble beginning – in a cigar box in the right-hand desk drawer in bookkeeping teacher, Miss Linnie B. Wilson’s room, to be exact. But, within only three years, it had grown to over 400 members, and Miss Wilson was forced to relocate the credit union from her cigar box to a new office building in the (then) Masonic Temple building downtown. The concept of “not for profit, but for service” guided the small credit union as loans were made to help new teachers buy suits to wear in the classroom, as well as to help teachers make ends meet in the summer months when school was out – and that concept still guides the credit union today.
In the 80 years since its establishment, has far outgrown that cigar box – serving more than 115,000 members in 16 locations, but hasn’t strayed from its underlying principle of serving members.
Updated 06-29-2015
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