Bill Smith with his Lifetime Achievement Award from the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation in 2019. (Credit/Coastal CU)
William “Bill” Smith, longtime board member for the $5.5 billion, Raleigh, N.C.-based Coastal Credit Union, passed away on Sunday, Feb. 23, the credit union announced Tuesday.
He was 92.
Smith retired from Coastal’s Board of Directors in 2023 after 53 years of service to the credit union. During the majority of his tenure, Smith served as the secretary/treasurer of the Board, with terms as vice chair and chair. He retired from the Board in May 2023.
In 1974, Smith played a crucial role in setting the tone for Coastal’s future expansion and reputation as an innovator and industry leader when he convinced the rest of the board to hire the credit union’s first CEO, according to the credit union.
Smith’s career accomplishments included active participation in the credit union industry’s annual Governmental Affairs Conference and regular visits to Capitol Hill with NAFCU (now America’s Credit Unions). He previously served on committees for NAFCU and the North Carolina Credit Union League and was the chairman of the League of IBM Credit Unions for 19 years.
He was named NAFCU Volunteer of the Year in 1993, was awarded the Order of the Longleaf Pine by North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper in 2018 and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Carolinas Credit Union Foundation in 2019.
In addition to his service to credit unions and a career at IBM, Smith was a small business owner and an officer of the Antique Dealers Association (in 2002, CU Times ran this feature on his love for antiquing). In his spare time, he volunteered with Junior Achievement and the Duke Children’s Miracle Network.
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Natasha Chilingerian
Natasha Chilingerian has been immersed in the credit union industry for over a decade. She first joined CU Times in 2011 as a freelance writer, and following a two-year hiatus from 2013-2015, during which time she served as a communications specialist for Xceed Financial Credit Union (now Kinecta Federal Credit Union), she re-joined the CU Times team full-time as managing editor. She was promoted to executive editor in 2019. In the earlier days of her career, Chilingerian focused on news and lifestyle journalism, serving as a writer and editor for numerous regional publications in Oregon, Louisiana, South Carolina and the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, she holds experience in marketing copywriting for companies in the finance and technology space. At CU Times, she covers People and Community news, cybersecurity, fintech partnerships, marketing, workplace culture, leadership, DEI, branch strategies, digital banking and more. She currently works remotely and splits her time between Southern California and Portland, Ore.
