Harvey Baine III, former NCUA RD and retired CU CEO, Passes

FAIRFAX, Va. – Harvey Baine III, who worked at NCUA for 34 years and was affectionately known by many of his colleagues as “the dean of the NCUA regional directors,” passed away April 3. He was 70 years old. A native of Tchula, Miss., Baine joined the Bureau of Federal Credit Unions – as NCUA was previously called – in 1956 after graduating from Mississippi State University, eventually becoming the agency’s first comptroller and based out of Memphis, Tenn. From there he moved to Los Angeles, then back to the East Coast to become senior staff officer in New York City. In 1970, Baine was named assistant regional director and was transferred to Boston. A year later, he spent five months on temporary assignment as regional director in Chicago, and then in 1972 he moved to Toledo, Ohio where he served as acting regional director for Regional IV. In the fall of 1972, Baine was appointed regional director for NCUA Region II and was stationed in Harrisburg, Pa. Three years later, he relocated to the agency’s Washington, D.C. office to become the assistant administrator for the Office of Inspection and Audit. He later became comptroller. In 1976, Baine returned to Harrisburg and worked as Region II region director. He moved back to Washington, D.C. in 1982 when Region II’s office was relocated there. A firm believer in field-of-membership expansion, Baine felt adding select employee groups was the only opportunity credit unions had to bring small groups into CUs. It was also, he opined, the only way credit unions could have salvaged the insurance fund in the mid-1980s. “We wouldn’t have survived without the ability to merge unlike common bonds,” he once told Credit Union Times. After leaving NCUA, Baine went to work at NAPUS FCU, Alexandria, Va. as president/CEO. He worked there until 2001 when he retired for health reasons. Baine was buried April 7. He is survived by his wife Sara, three children, and two grandchildren. -