Linda Coleman

CANTON – According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average person will work roughly 12 jobs in their lifetime and stay with a company for less than five years. Linda Coleman, who is celebrating her 40th anniversary working at North Country Savings Bank, didn’t set out to buck that trend, but says her job at NCSB became her life’s work, and that she was comfortable at a place where she made lifelong friends and could work behind the scenes in the Loan Operations Department.

Linda grew up in the town of Colton, the youngest child of Willis and Gladys Coleman. Her mother ran a local hardware store, and her father operated a gas station. Her parents instilled in her at an early age the importance of a good work ethic. A normal day might have seen Linda working from sunup to sundown, but she enjoyed working side by side with her Father at the gas station and looks back at those times fondly.

She was hired as a teller by North Country Savings Bank on Aug. 28, 1984 when she was 18 years old and fresh out of high school. She spent her first 17 years at the Potsdam Branch in that same position, and eventually transitioned into the lending department. She says some things have changed over her forty years, most notably the technology. When she first started, the bank used pen and paper for many processes rather than computers. But she says one thing that has stayed consistent is the people.

“Customers still have the same needs they did 40 years ago, and that is what makes my job fulfilling. I treat every loan with the utmost importance, because to them it is important—it’s their home or their vehicle, Coleman stated.

Throughout the years, the bank has also helped Linda through difficult times, as she lost both her parents shortly after starting at the bank. Later on, her four brothers passed away, leaving only Linda and her sister Lisa as the surviving members of the family. Through these struggles, she has come to learn the value of the relationships she has nurtured through the years at NCSB. She has made many close friends and finds fulfillment in supporting the younger generation of employees.

For those that work with her, they say they can't imagine the bank without her.

“Linda’s longevity and the care she has for North Country Savings Bank is unparalleled,” said Bank President and CEO R. Brian Coakley. “Across four decades she has developed lifelong friendships while demonstrating loyalty, community service, and great care for our customers.”

Linda points to several colleagues in her hallway who are a big reason why she has no immediate plans for retiring. “I am just not ready to close the door on this chapter of my life.”

And as she sits across the desk for this interview, contemplating— "Maybe I'll stay another four or five years…could be seven…” — there is a sense that we may be writing about her again for number fifty. It would be appropriate, after all, as her father used to tell her, “Colemans never quit.”