Stanley Houston Rhodes

SALINE, MI (June 28, 2024) – Stan Rhodes, a nationally-known titan and innovator in the US financial industry, passed away peacefully on the morning of Thursday, June 27, in hospital near his home in Washtenaw County, MI, at age 77 after a brave battle against illness. He is survived by his wife, Christine Conner; his daughter, Tracy Rhodes and her husband, Curtis; his sister, Ellen Sisk and her husband Donald; 4 doggies, and countless devoted family, friends, admirers and the numerous colleagues that he mentored and ushered to their success along the way.
Per Stan's request, there will be no formal funeral ceremony; a gathering celebrating his life is to be planned for this Fall. Contributions in Stan's name can be made to your local No-Kill Animal Shelter or Humane Society.
~ West Virginia roots ~
Stan was born August 28, 1946 in Keyser, WV. He grew up in Short Gap, which was just south of what he recently called the "local metropolis" of Cumberland, MD across the state border. He was a 1964 graduate of Fort Ashby High School, and attended Potomac State College prior to entering the service in December, 1965.
Stan was proud that his father, Houston Rhodes, had served as a member of the US Army's 101st Airborne, (the "Screaming Eagles") on the front lines during World War II. His dad returned from the war to work at the Kelly Springfield Tire Company in Cumberland, and along with Stan's mom Madeline raised Stan and his sister Ellen.
"I had excellent parents," Stan said this June with his trademark head-tilted-back smile, smoke curling from the cigarette in his hand.
Stan's dad was a gentle, happy soul, a strong and loving man whom Stan admired and took after in many ways. They enjoyed going to the racetrack often and he taught Stan early on how to handicap the contenders.
Stan's mom Madeline was a very petite lady with a lot of spunk and intelligence. She herself was very well-read beyond what her public schooling had provided, and taught her kids from a young age to be very studious and inquisitive. She had high expectations of Stan, but was very loving. It seems that she saw his brilliance early on.
His sister Ellen was always his favorite person, and to this day is sweet, full of faith and happiness, and is the light of the family. Ellen has raised two wonderful daughters who have raised wonderful families of their own. They all shared a special bond with Stan and are down to earth and kind (sound familiar?). Stan also treated his wife's niece like kin, and they traveled with her often from the time she was a child. She and Stan always had a special bond as well.
Stan's daughter Tracy, also extremely smart and connected with him on an intellectual level, as she loved poetry and was an excellent writer. They spoke almost daily. They were separated only by distance at times but communicated constantly. He was very proud of his daughter and enjoyed their bond and similar sense of humor.
Stan was so proud and sentimental about his family and talked about them often throughout his life.
~ Decorated Vietnam combat helicopter commander; commercial airplane pilot ~
Before Stan decided to devote his life to banking, he was a combat helicopter pilot in Vietnam. He was in-country from late 1967 through late '68. In the first part of his combat tour, Stan commanded a UH-1C "Huey" attack helicopter gunship for the 3rd Squadron of the 17th Air Cavalry, and later served in the 120th Aviation company. Stan was based first in Di An and then in Long Binh, achieving the US Army rank of Warrant Officer-2.
He was very proud of the fact that even being shot down at least 4 times, he never lost a man. As a pilot, that was his most important accomplishment.
Because of his down-to-earth humility and focus on others, not enough people knew that Stan was awarded the elite Distinguished Flying Cross from the US Department of Defense for "heroism and extraordinary achievement in aerial flight above and beyond the call of duty" for his combat actions at the siege of the US base at Long Bien - Bien Hoa on January 31, 1968. "Although relentlessly exposed to enemy rocket, machine gun, and automatic weapons fire," reads Stan's DFC medal citation, "he continuously attacked and destroyed numerous enemy positions with devastatingly accurate aerial rockets." In fact, Stan's Huey was shot down in the middle of that battle; under fire, he directed repairs of the aircraft and the defense of his crew, then went aloft once again to resume attacking the enemy.
In his typical self-effacing style, Stan joked in June that after his numerous front-line combat missions and decorations, the US Army subsequently made him a "glorified limousine driver – ferrying Generals in helicopters around South Vietnam."
Upon returning stateside, Stan moved to Michigan to take a job flying cargo planes out of Willow Run Airport. Although he truly enjoyed flying, the plane was WWII vintage and not very airworthy. After speaking to management about the condition of the planes, they told him to "shut up and fly." As self-preservation kicked in, he began looking for a new line of work.
~ The Banking industry beckons in the 1970's ~
Looking through the newspaper at the want ads one day (that's how we used to find jobs in the old days), Stan spotted an ad for a Branch Manager at a place called First Savings Association of Ypsilanti. He called the number and set up an interview with a gentleman by the name of Woody McAndrew. Woody's family started the savings and loan back in the 1890's. Woody saw something in the young Army veteran from West Virginia and hired him without any banking experience.
Woody was a traditional, old-style banker and Stan was full of new ideas, so as you can imagine they did clash. Even when there were disagreements, there was always great mutual respect. When Stan's ideas and loan purchases saved First Savings from going out of business during the S&L crisis in the 1980's, Woody was convinced that Stan was the guy to take over when Woody retired.
When Woody retired, Stan saw the opportunity to take First Savings public and convert to a bank charter. With the Board's approval, the wheels were put in motion to begin the conversion. The process to convert was not without some anxious moments. We were in the middle of another savings and loan crisis, and trying to sell investors on a financial institution that did not look like any other savings and loan was a daunting task. Stan was not discouraged. He went to every investor presentation (dog and pony shows) he could, in order to get the message out to the investing public. Finally, after getting regulatory approval, they were able to close out the offering. Stan was the driving force behind the success of the offering and at his insistence, a substantial portion of the stock was set aside for an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP).
~ Pioneering the Wholesale Mortgage Lending industry ~
By the early 1990's, it became apparent that in order to expand the wholesale loan operations, Stan needed to find some "deep pockets" to fund the mortgage operation. The Bank was struggling to fund its expanding wholesale operation (known as InterFirst) that was buying loans all over the United States. Standard Federal Bank came into the picture and was the suitor that won out in the end. Standard Federal Bank was initially interested in the retail branches located in Washtenaw County. It did not take them very long before they figured out that the wholesale mortgage operation was the real gem. In the resulting purchase, Standard Federal Bank received 5 retail branches and a billion-dollar wholesale mortgage operation.
After the deal closed with Standard Federal Bank, the wholesale mortgage operation was able to retain the InterFirst name and continue to do business with its business partners in the same manner as before. Stan continued on as the leader and guiding force behind the meteoric growth of the InterFirst Wholesale Mortgage Lending business.
Due to Stan's efforts, the return to investors and the Employee Stock Ownership Plan was a tremendous 1,300 percent. If anyone asked Stan how he was able to build this successful company, his answer was always that it was a team effort. Yes, there were many parts to success but none of it would have been possible without Stan's leadership, intellect, vision, people skills, compassion, and friendship. (So long to a man that changed people's lives, all for the better.)
After the sale, Stan was able to devote full time to the InterFirst business. InterFirst focused solely on originating loans through mortgage brokerages. Stan had believed for some time that mortgage brokers would grow as a share of the total mortgage origination landscape. He was right, and positioning InterFirst to be a catalyst for this growth resulted in continued success for InterFirst. Volume grew over 300% between 1994 and 1996. As a matter of fact, the business was so successful that Standard Federal asked Stan to flatten the InterFirst growth curve!
It was another turning point, in 1997, when ABN AMRO decided to buy Standard Federal. ABN AMRO was a Dutch bank with operations in over 100 countries. It was one of the largest banks in the world, with plenty of capital to grow whatever businesses it invested in. Similar to the Standard Federal/InterFirst acquisition, ABN AMRO was initially attracted to Standard Federal's large branch network. Once again, it soon discovered the hidden gem of what Stan had built at InterFirst. "Discovered" does not fully describe it, as ABN AMRO was so impressed with Stan and his team that they decided to place the direction of all their US mortgage businesses under Stan's leadership. It included not only InterFirst wholesale lending operation, but also consumer mortgage lending divisions, refinancing, servicing, and mortgage portfolio investments. With more resources and capital than ever before, Stan started back down the growth path with the newly minted ABN AMRO Mortgage Group (AAMG).
Stan was truly a visionary. One example of this was MOAI (Mortgages Online at InterFirst). Before the Internet was even a thing, Stan had wanted to connect mortgage brokers more directly with InterFirst's innovative origination system (MUPIT). However, the challenge associated with distributing software to do so was daunting. As the Internet started becoming commercially viable, Stan decided to take the leap and transfer his vision of MOAI online. It was the first of its kind and propelled the growth of the InterFirst business to industry leadership. In 2002, InterFirst funded over $100 billion in mortgage loans. Keep in mind that home prices were about half of what they are today, so translate that to $200 billion in 2024 dollars!
Another example was the acquisition of mortgage.com. ABN AMRO had given Stan the resources to diversify beyond InterFirst, and this included building a large mortgage servicing platform. Stan knew that this customer base would present a refinance opportunity for AAMG if mortgage rates moved downward. At the same time, the dot com boom was quickly becoming a spectacular bust. The previously existing mortgage.com was one of the casualties. Stan saw the opportunity in obtaining the mortgage.com brand as well as several key leaders (the ones that did not sink mortgage.com) and leveraging it with the AAMG customer base if rates declined. Guess what? Rates started declining in early 2001, right at the time of the acquisition. This resulted in another engine of growth for AAMG.
By the mid 2000s, AAMG was well established as one of the leading mortgage banking companies in the industry. Having brought InterFirst and then AAMG up the mountain, Stan decided to take a step back and let the next generation lead the business. If there was a mortgage banking Hall of Fame, Stan would certainly be in it. More importantly, through his leadership and success Stan had a positive, life-changing impact on literally thousands of AAMG employees and business partners.
His democratic management style is legendary – befriending and respecting employees and seeing them as people and not as workers, inspiring them to succeed and empowering them to be creative, engaged, proactive and to exceed their client/customer expectations. It's not surprising that years after he left the industry he is still held in the highest esteem, his manner emulated, and loved by all whose life he touched. It's often mentioned that he was one in a million!
~ Stan's Retirement Years: 2007-2024 ~
After retiring in 2007, Stan remained active in the Industry with posts on a couple Boards and continuation with activities with the Housing Policy Council where he was an Executive Member for several years. He kept his promise to bring a dog in to the home after several years of non-stop business travel, joined often by his wife who worked in the same industry. Of course, the dog had to carry on the legacy of financial services and was named Fannie Mae. She was once photographed in front of the Treasury building in DC, "thanking them" for the TARP Program in 2008 during the mortgage crisis.
Retirement was easy and enjoyable for Stan as it allowed him to continue his fascination with the Sciences, History, Aeronautics, Cooking and learning new things. He frequently took courses online in Coding and new technologies, and also created a dog food recipe with the support and approval of the Veterinary Medicine experts at Michigan State University. The animals that came after Fannie Mae included several rescues that gave their paw of approval for the food they cooked in their kitchen monthly and have led to long and happy lives. Stan loved traveling with his dogs to second homes in Fort Lauderdale, FL and Charleston, SC, as well as Airbnb's around the country to visit family and friends. He especially loved visiting Charleston, where his daughter and her husband lived, and found a new area to fall in love with.
During his career Stan was able to own a Beechcraft Baron and then Cessna 421 to make the best of his time by flying to many of his meetings in Chicago and as far as Key West. Often he was joined by coworkers who loved being in the trusted hands of his pilot skills. The best part of having his own plane was the ability to visit his family in the Cumberland, MD area during busy years that made road trips more time-consuming.
Stan was as much loved in his friendship circles as he was by his business associates and long-term friends made during his career, which has continued to endure. He was very social in a quiet way and loved great food preceded by the required Scotch on ice and accompanied by a couple glasses of red wine. He became a very ambitious cook and read many books on French cooking while watching his favorite cooking shows on TV. Stan loved telling jokes and quoting lines from poetry, movies, and conversations he had years ago. He never forgot a thing that he read or experienced in life and we will never forget him.
- Compiled from contributions by Ron Ciolek, Willie Newman, Ursula Terrasi, Christine Conner, and Logan Pfaff