James F. Dwinell Jr. was well into his 90s and still driving five days a week the 60 miles from York Harbor, Maine, to Winchester Savings Bank, where he had spent 67 years as board member, president, and chairman.
On the way to the bank his great-grandfather James Fisher helped found in 1871, he would walk along Main Street, as he always had, stopping to say hello to friends, dropping in at the hardware store or the gas station for a chat. When he got to the bank, he'd stop to talk to customers. He was a tall man of a gregarious nature whose annual bank meeting reports were filled with lighthearted prose, along with the dull stuff.
If ever the town had an official "Mr. Winchester," friends said, it would be Jim Dwinell, who loved his hometown and was loved in return, friends and relatives said. From 1944 to 1984, he served on virtually every town board, often as chairman, including the Finance Committee, the Water and Sewer Board, and the Board of Selectmen.
Mr. Dwinell, who was chairman emeritus of Winchester Savings, died Oct. 3 at Sentry Hill, a retirement community in York Harbor, of complications resulting from a broken hip, said his daughter, Jean D. Ferguson of Weston. He was 98.
Mr. Dwinell moved to York Harbor in 1996 after his marriage that year to Grayce Smith. Mr. Dwinell's first wife, Alice (Eaton), died in 1986 after 54 years of marriage.
Around Winchester, stories abound about Mr. Dwinell's kindness to the bank's customers. An often-told one is about his granting mortgages to first-time applicants on the spot. After doing the paperwork, people would ask when they could expect to get the mortgage, and he would reply, "It's approved now," according to a 1994 issue of the Woburn Advocate/Winchester Town Crier.
Those stories are true, said Peter Segerstrom, president of Winchester Savings Bank, and J. Robert Willing, a longtime Winchester friend.
In his devotion to his customers, they both likened Mr. Dwinell to the benevolent George Bailey, the character played by Jimmy Stewart in the 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life." In the movie, Bailey doles out his own money to keep his family's building and loan out of the hands of the greedy Mr. Potter.
Nothing that drastic occurred at the Winchester Savings Bank, but Mr. Dwinell helped many of its customers out of tight spots, his family said.
"Dad sort of looked at the people who came and worked at the bank as an extension of his family," said his son, James F. Dwinell 3d of Weston.
Segerstrom said: "With Jim, it was all about the advancement of the community and the institution behind it, Winchester Savings. He was a Jimmy Stewart kind of guy."
"When the bank loses touch with the community for any reason, it's the locals who suffer," he said. "We have people here in Winchester, you know them, they know you. Somebody comes in and you know they're struggling, but they're good people. You know damn well if they go to a commercial bank they won't get help. But if you know somebody, you're going to do everything you can to accommodate them."
Current bank employees expressed how they felt about Mr. Dwinell in a series of e-mails that told of his interest in their families.
"My first meeting with Mr. Dwinell was as a customer applying for a construction loan," said Debbie Gatta, a longtime employee. "He looked beyond the numbers and put his trust in me as a person.
"I knew from the start that he was a fair, kind, and considerate man. Whether it was his comforting smile at board meetings or his cheery hellos, he always made me feel special. I think he made everyone feel that way."
The bank's customer service manager, Rick McDermott, wrote: "If you look around the bank and see all the people who have numerous years of service, it seems more than a coincidence. His charming manner made everyone feel like family and feel at home."
Segerstrom said that when Mr. Dwinell became president of the bank in 1951, its assets were less than $10 million. Now they are greater than $450 million. "That was Jim's legacy," he said.
Willing, Mr. Dwinell's longtime friend, said his attention to mortgages didn't end with approving them. On Saturdays, he would go around town and do his own appraisals. He knew the town of 22,000 so well, Willing said, "that if you told Jim the address of a house, he could tell you what color it was."
James Fisher Dwinell was born in Winchester to James Fisher Dwinell and Florence Wiley Smith Dwinell. He prepared for college at Choate School in Wallingford, Conn. He graduated from Harvard in 1931 and married Alice Eaton in 1933.
For 35 years he worked in sales management with Travelers Insurance Co. in Boston until 1975, and then became involved full time with the bank and his town.
Richard Ockerbloom of Winchester, a former president of The Boston Globe, described Mr. Dwinell as "exceptionally learned. When Jim spoke, people listened intently," he said. "He treated everyone the same, whether you were a janitor or someone who might be considered more important."
He was, said Mr. Dwinell's daughter, "the epitome of a gentleman with a strong Yankee heritage." He also loved prose, humor, and Harvard football.
In addition to his wife, son, and daughter, Mr. Dwinell leaves four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
Funeral Services and interment are private. In lieu of flowers, donations in Mr. Dwinell’s memory may be made to Choate Rosemary Hall c/o Mr. David Howell 333 Christian St. Wallingford, CT 06492 or to the Harvard University/Harvard College Fund, 124 Mount Auburn St., Cambridge, MA 02138.