Robuck retires, Littlefield takes over Central Bank leadership

Central Bank ended months of speculation about its leadership when the parent company’s chairman, Sam Cook, announced that Kenneth Littlefield would take over as president when Bob Robuck retired May 29.

Littlefield, executive vice president of Central Bancompany, whick owns Columbia’s largest bank, Boone County National Bank, was one of five finalists for the leadership of Jefferson City’s largest bank. The others were also executive vice presidents: Charles Weber, Don Perdue, Mike Ittner and Mark Johnson.

“This important decision followed a great deal of thoughtful consideration, deliberation and planning,” Cook said at a news conference May 11.

“It’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” said Littlefield, who takes over as Central Bank’s eighth president at the tail end of a booming bank market. Competition has become more intense, and the local economy is flat, with a housing slump and virtually no growth.

During an interview, Robuck said he had known for years that he would retire when he turned 65 at the end of May, just as his predecessor did when he turned 65.

“Bill Quigg set a good example,” Robuck said of the previous bank president. “I started making it known a year ago that I was going to do it.”

But Robuck said it was a difficult decision. He indicated the choice was narrowed to two and that one finalist in particular “is very disappointed.”

“We put it off and put it off for a long while,” Robuck said. “They always say you develop your staff so you have a lot of choices [for promotion]. The bad part is you have to select one.”

Robuck became president in 1997, but he had been with the bank for 38 years, since 1969.

It was a good run for the grandson of a sharecropper, who started working on the family farm at age 8 when his father started a small farm supply company in Cairo, Mo., about an hour’s drive north of Jefferson City along U.S. 63.

“When you grow up poor, you know how to be frugal,” Robuck said of an upbringing that helped make him a successful banker.

His father gave him more responsibilities as he got older, and eventually Robuck was doing most of the farming.

“You learn responsibilities and accountability,” he said. “He would assign duties to do, and when I came home, he expected them to be done.”

Robuck said he earned a Curator’s Scholarship at the University of Missouri. “It was $100 per semester, and it was enough at the time to pay for tuition. That was a big deal.”

Robuck worked for the university’s facilities department every afternoon while he was a student, and he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

In Jefferson City, he and his wife, Sally Robuck, raised two sons, each of whom now has two daughters.

With his retirement, Robuck said he and Sally will travel and spend more time at their house at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Robuck presided over Central Bancompany’s flagship bank during a growth spurt, a 10-year period in which assets nearly doubled from $850 million to $1.6 billion.

Littlefield also grew up on a farm, in Rich Hill on the western side of Missouri.

His great-great-grandfather, Civil War veteran, bought the 240-acre farm in 1873. Littlefield and other family members have expanded the farm to more than 600 acres.

Littlefield graduated from the local high school and from Central Missouri State University, where he earned bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree and briefly taught economics.

Littlefield acknowledged that he’s taking over at a challenging time for the industry.

“The competition is getting more intense,” Littlefield said. “There are new banks in the market and more non-banks taking a larger share of the market. All the banks in town are fighting over the same customers. Our hope is to be the best competitor and the best bank.”