Michael J. Dietz
Former Baltimore County Savings Bank president oversaw institution’s growth, marketed to US military around globe
Michael J. Dietz, who led Baltimore County Savings Bank during its growth in the 1970s and 1980s, died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 22 at his Perry Hall home. He was 83.
Born in Baltimore and raised on Overlea Avenue, he was the son of George F. Dietz, a fertilizer plant worker and Montgomery Ward employee, and A. Gertrude Nord, a homemaker.
Mr. Dietz graduated in 1957 from Calvert Hall College High School and earned an accounting degree at Loyola University Maryland. He served in the Army — an experience that taught him military personnel needed a safe place to put their money.
He met his future wife, Doris Butt, while riding on the No. 15 streetcar.
“I was going to Catholic High and he was going to Calvert Hall,” she said. “He asked one of my classmates, ‘Who was that blonde up front?’”
After their 1960 marriage, her father suggested to Mr. Dietz that he investigate working for a neighborhood savings and loan association.
Mr. Dietz worked as an accountant for the old Equitable Trust Co., Sinclair Refinery, Texaco and Alexander and Alexander before taking a post in 1972 with what was then Baltimore County Savings and Loan.
The institution had a single office and was open from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday. He was the first hired of three full-time employees. Total deposits were less than $1 million, according to a his autobiography, “Mike Dietz, A Life Well Lived.”
The savings and loan had one fireproof file cabinet that doubled as a safe, a 100-key adding machine, a manual typewriter and a fishing tackle box which served as the teller drawer.
“The board members brought their own chairs for a meeting,” said William Loughran, a former vice president of the savings and loan. “My first impression was this was a small and nondescript bank. I was leery to come on board because of its appearance, but I believed in Mike.”
Mr. Dietz ran the savings and loan on a day-to-day basis. He grew the institution from one branch in Perry Hall to 16 throughout the Baltimore suburbs, stretching from Howard to Harford counties.
“Mike had an outgoing personality. He was a people person with a strong personal touch,” said Mr. Loughran. “He visited the branches we opened and asked the employees about their families. He knew each employee’s story. “
Mr. Dietz was named the savings and loan’s president in August 1974. He hired his sister-in-law, Lorraine Reed, as a secretary. He also recruited people from nearby neighborhoods to create a personable atmosphere and maintain local flavor. He hired his daughters and their friends to distribute advertising fliers.
“He took it from $500,000 in assets to $300 million,” Mr. Loughran said. “He was aggressive in advertising in local papers and in military newspapers too. We had military people mailing in money from all over the world. We also paid a good rate of return on passbooks.”
When he opened a new branch, he made sure a sports personality was on hand. He had football star Johnny Unitas and baseball luminaries like Ken Singleton, Rick Dempsey and Brooks Robinson cut ribbons and pose for photographs.
“Friends joked that the bank was growing so fast under my father’s management that it seemed like everyone in Perry Hall but my mother was working for him,” said his daughter, Michele Chynoweth.
Mr. Dietz converted the savings and loan to a publicly traded corporation in July 1998 and retired in July 1999. It was sold in 2014 to Pittsburgh-based First National Bank.
Mr. Dietz belonged to the Perry Hall Jaycees, Knights of Columbus and the Holy Name Society, a Catholic organization.
He spent portions of his summers in Ocean City and his winters in Fort
Myers, Florida.
Mr. Dietz was a sports fan and had tickets to the Orioles and Ravens. He also rooted for the University of Notre Dame.
His daughter Michelle described him as quintessential Baltimore resident: “My father loved steamed crabs, fishing, boating and bowling. He could give you scores of Orioles games back in the 1960s and 70s.
“He knew the stats. He grew up with his mom listening to Orioles games on the radio. His seats at M&T Stadium were on the 50-yard line.”
A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 12:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at St. Joseph Roman Catholic Church in Fullerton.
Survivors include his wife of 62 years Doris Butt, retired a legal secretary; two daughters, Michele Chynoweth of North East and Kimberly Holland of Perry Hall; three sisters, Madeline Moeser of Baltimore, Millie Horodynski of East Lansing, Michigan and Kathy Zukowski of Baltimore; seven grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.