Bank president was on village council

1/29/2004

SYCAMORE, Ohio - Keith E. Mohr, president of the First National Bank of Sycamore during most of his 36-year career there and a former village council member, died of pneumonia Monday in the Ohio Veterans Home, Sandusky, where he lived 31/2 years.

He had Alzheimer s disease, his son Kim said.

Mr. Mohr retired in 1994 as president and chief executive officer of First National Bank of Sycamore, to which he was promoted in 1971. He began as a loan officer in 1958 and later was vice president.

“It was a good fit for Dad,” his son said. “With [First National] being a home-owned bank, he could do a few more things to help the local guy that the corporate banks can t do - or won t do.”

Around Sycamore, “he was held in pretty high esteem,” said Richard Ekleberry, chief executive officer of Sycamore Telephone and a longtime friend. “Everybody liked Keith because he was a common-type person.”

Mr. Mohr wouldn t buy a luxury car, his son said, and “his idea of enjoyment was to go see a Little League game or go to the American Legion and have a beer with someone who just got off first shift at American Standard.”

Mr. Mohr served on Sycamore Village Council for 25 years, until the early 1990s, including at least two stints as president, his son said. He was a former member of the Mental Health and Recovery Services Board of Seneca-Sandusky-Wyandot Counties.

He was a graduate of Tiffin Columbian High School and of Heidelberg College. He was a Marine Corps veteran and served stateside during the Korean War. He was a graduate of bankers programs at Dartmouth College, the University of Wisconsin, and Ohio University.

He and his wife liked to travel. He was a speed reader, and he often finished a book in an evening. He liked to golf and spent time in his woodworking shop to relax, his son said.

Surviving are his wife, Sandra, whom he married March 15, 1952; sons, Kim and Kevin Mohr; daughter, Kelly Sager; sister, Jacqueline Yeager, and seven grandchildren.

Services will be at 11 a.m. today in Sycamore United Methodist Church. Arrangements are being handled by the Walton-Moore Mortuary.

The family suggests tributes to the church or the Mohawk Historical Society.