HURON – As one of three children growing up in a Beadle County farm family, Lynn Schneider learned the value of a dollar when economic times were tough.
Those life-long lessons  in money management, combined with his classroom interest in business and accounting, led him to a professional career as one of the key financial players in some of Huron’s most significant success stories.
For Schneider, it’s now time to move on. He will retire at the end of December after 46 years in banking and finance, the last 16 as chief executive officer of American Bank & Trust.
From new bank start-ups and purchases to perhaps the most serious challenge to date involving cyber security, he and others have been at the forefront of business issues in Huron and South Dakota.
It all began with a good education, something that was important in his parent’s eyes because they had to leave school far younger.
Victor and Ida Schneider’s modest farm was about nine miles southwest of Huron, and their children attended Grant School, a one-room building six miles south and one mile west of Huron.
Schneider was the only student in his grade in country school.
When he graduated from eighth grade – the last year his mom and dad had attended school – he joined about 230 others in the freshman class at Huron High School.
“She (Ida) always encouraged me and my brother and sister to do well in school and keep studying hard and get an education because she never could,” Schneider said.
His mother was the fifth child out of 14, and her parents let every other one go to high school; the rest were needed on the farm.
Entering high school was an intimidating experience for him at first.
“I was just super scared,” Schneider said. “I didn’t know anybody there. But it came together and worked out.”
When it came time to don his cap and gown and walk across the Huron Arena stage, he was at a crossroads.
He thought he might like to farm with his dad. But because the farm was small, his dad also had a full-time job at Armour & Co. He didn’t want to borrow money to expand his operation.
At the encouragement of Huron banker Merle Marshall, Schneider enrolled at Huron College, where he quickly found out he enjoyed classes in business, accounting and economics. But he was not yet thinking about a career in banking.

After graduating in 1969 with a business administration degree, he took a job as a civilian employee of the Army in Moline, Ill. After drawing a low number in the Vietnam War days of the draft lottery – Schneider found himself in the military six months later. Unlike friends of his, he was fortunate to be stationed stateside, in El Paso, Texas, not even having to serve his full two-year stint.
It was in 1971, after he completed basic training, yhat his wife, Gloria, joined him in Texas. They had married right after college; she had gone on to earn her nursing degree at St. John’s in Huron.
The Schneiders missed South Dakota, so when his military service was done they moved back, where he took a job in agricultural lending at a government agency in Mitchell.
“That’s basically been my bread and butter and focus of all the years in banking I did,” he said.
Huron became home again two years later when he was able to transfer to a position in the same agency here. He would spend 10 years there.
Schneider’s banking career began with Farmers & Merchants Bank, where he spent 20 years. During that time, when Bruce Odson left to accept a bank president job in Minneapolis, Schneider became president and chief executive officer at the age of 39.
One of the major accomplishments during that time was the construction of the new F&M facility at Third Street and Dakota Avenue South.
Schneider left for American Bank & Trust in 2002 when F&M owners decided to sell.
The bank had branches in Alpena, Wolsey, Mellette, Miller and Wessington Springs, had $100 million in assets and employed about 50 people at the time.
In the past 16 years, that has grown to 10 locations, $700 million in assets and 140 employees.
The vacant Old Home Bread building at 18th Street and Dakota Avenue South was purchased and remodeled and in 2007 was expanded, becoming a new bank branch.
“There were a couple of bank purchases along the way,” Schneider said. “Two branches that we have in Sioux Falls were start-ups, just like we were here in Huron.”
American Bank & Trust entered the Sioux Falls market in February 2016, but the bank’s management team had talked about doing it for a decade prior to that. Other banks had gone to Sioux Falls and were growing.
“But we always felt that we didn’t know the market, number one, and number two always felt our expertise was ag financing,” Schneider said.
He said they had good relationships with half a dozen banks in Sioux Falls and sold ag loans to them and purchased commercial loans from them to have more of a mix and not so much of a concentration in agriculture lending.
The decision to make the move came when a long-time banker friend of Schneider’s offered to open doors for them, so they would know what business to pursue, who to build relationships with and what bankers to hire in Sioux Falls.
“Those were our missing pieces,” Schneider said. “That’s exactly what happened. It just really took off well.”
As he prepares to step away from his years in banking, Schneider worries about security issues in a time of hacking of major companies, jeopardizing private information of customers.
“My thought has always been all these computer systems and all these software programs and all these firewalls are built by people, and if there’s people smart enough to build them there’s probably other people smart enough to crack them,” he said.
“I don’t know how you ever kill that risk off,” he said. “Until then, I guess you have to keep struggling with it.
“Banks especially are under heavy pressure to have dozens of belts and suspenders to hold up and protect things and do everything we can,” Schneider said.
He predicts that mobile banking will continue to grow in popularity. But even though customers can even get a personal loan online, he said most significant banking – for business, agriculture and home loans especially – is still done one-on-one. People in South Dakota and this part of the country value those relationships, Schneider said.
Being on the ground floor of many business deals over the years – such as the work to bring Trussbilt to town in 1989 that he likes to point to – involves significant confidentiality before any public announcements.
“You have quite a responsibility to handle that information properly,” Schneider said.
In retirement, he said he will miss the daily interaction with co-workers, customers and community leaders.
“Those are just really good experiences, good relations and it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

PHOTOS BY ROGER LARSEN OF THE PLAINSMAN
Lynn Schneider will retire at the end of December after a 46-year career in banking and finance, all but two of them in Huron. He has been chief executive officer at American Bank & Trust for the past 16 years.