Kurt Walsdorf, Spokane and Boise market president for Bank of America Corp., has retired from his post after a 40-year career with the financial institution. 

A born and raised Spokanite, Walsdorf, 64, grew up in Spokane’s Browne’s Addition neighborhood and attended Gonzaga Preparatory School. He attained a bachelor’s in finance and economics from Carroll College in Helena, Montana, before returning to his hometown and earning an MBA from Gonzaga University. 

Bank of America has a footprint of 128 financial centers across the Evergreen State. Within Spokane and Coeur d’Alene, Bank of America has seven financial centers. 

The Journal met with Walsdorf days before his Aug. 2 departure to discuss his interest in banking, the challenges he faced, and advice he has for others on their career path. 

What drew you to a career in banking? 

I grew up in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood in an apartment building that my mom and dad managed. So I got introduced to banking and finance at the dining room table through listening to my parents' conversations about how they needed to collect rent or make a payment, or do that type of stuff to manage an apartment building. When they started buying up old homes and fixing them up, I got to learn about how you make payments on loans, how to amortize, and what that looks like. It piqued my interest. I knew coming out of high school at Gonzaga Prep that I wanted to go into something business related. 

After I got my MBA at Gonzaga University, I did a nine-month management training program over in Seattle. In the training program, you get to learn where your interests lie, whether it’s the retail side of banking or the commercial side. I was more drawn to the commercial side of the bank so that’s where my career started, doing agricultural loans in Moses Lake and working with farmers in Yakima, and orchard clients for large operations. 

What have been some of the highlights of your career? 

Some of the biggest accomplishments come from working through some of the challenges we’ve had, like the financial crisis, but even more recently, during the COVID pandemic. We took care of our clients and our employees and made sure we were doing things to give back to the community. Whether it was supplying masks to different organizations or using our network to get hand sanitizer out to different organizations and nonprofits that focus on low to moderate-income populations of people that were in the greatest need during that period of time.

It’s about giving back and making sure that the community was also sharing in the success we have as an organization because that’s how you make a sustainable organization. 

Spokane has so many homegrown financial institutions. What’s the role of Bank of America in the Inland Northwest? 

Responsible growth is a mantra that we use a lot within our company. We know that we have to grow in the market. There’s no excuse. We have to grow, and we have to grow within our risk framework, but we do it with a client-focused strategy and we do it sustainably. Sustainable manner means we have a great place to work for our employees and we give back to the communities that we live and work in. 

I like to think of the fact that we are this big global company with this depth, breadth, and wealth of information that we can deliver with our local teammates to clients in Spokane, Coeur d’Alene, and Boise. We have 300 associates in our market who are engaged in their communities, engaged in giving back, and having a local feel to what we do. That’s how I look at how we fit in; it’s the best of both worlds, I think. 

What are some examples of that?

We’ve got all these different programs that we call anchor grants. We’ve done some anchor grants in the community for the Native American Health Sciences Organization over at Washington State University, at the Spokane campus. We have the Museums on Us program where we brought in our exhibits from our collection and placed them at the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture here so they can use it to raise money or attract people to the museum. We have a Neighborhood Champion grant where we give grants to local organizations and provide leadership training and opportunities. 

So, all these different programs that we’ve had and being able to do it here in a community I grew up in is pretty special.  Our foundation grants focus on things like workforce development, basic health and human services, food insecurity, and housing affordability. Our foundation partners with local organizations and we make all those decisions locally too. It’s not somebody from a distant area making those decisions. 

If you could do something else, what would it have been? 

Our business is so unique, and even though it’s changing with all the technology and everything else, it’s still relationship-driven, and that’s what I really like. I’ve been able to make so many relationships with different companies and business owners across our market’s footprint, and seeing their success is something that really appeals to me. Just having a small part in that, I never really thought of another career. 

I went to college thinking I was going to do something with business, and the more I got into banking, the more I developed my career, I got to see all the different ways there is to earn a living. It has always piqued my curiosity to go out and visit with a business owner and learn about what they do, then go to another company and learn something different. It’s pretty neat to be able to see that. 

What advice would you give to others starting their careers? 

Own your career journey. Have a vision but own it and reach out and connect with people, because at the end of the day, we’re still in a relationship business. I think reaching out to people and putting yourself out there and taking risks you might not feel you are ready for. I’ve had moments in my career where I thought maybe I wasn’t ready for something, but somebody else saw something in me and said, “Hey, you can do this.” You’re not ready for it but take the risk. Take the leap of faith. That’s my biggest advice. 

What do you plan to do in retirement? 

I’m going to spend more time with my family. My wife and I have three sons and two identical twin grandsons. A lot of my friends that I grew up with here locally have retired or sold their company and are retiring. I get a lot of texts from them about things they’re doing, and I think the time is right to be able to do that.

I will still stay involved. Growing up here and being part of the community for so many years, Spokane is just a part of my heart, and I want to stay involved and active from a community perspective.