I remember the day well in 1989 when I received a call from Jim Berry, the Vice Chairman of Nations Bank. I was one of the younger bank Presidents in the Houston Region with a reputation of doing things by the book. Completely out of the blue, Mr. Berry’s secretary placed the call and asked me if I could hold for him. As I waited for him to get on the line, my thoughts ranged from “I’m in trouble for something” to “how in the world does he even know who I am.” I had never spoken with a vice chairman of anything, much less someone of Jim’s stature.

Jim finally came on the line and got right to the point. In the most classic North Carolinian drawl, he said, “Danny, I’m going to send someone out to see you, and I want you to try to help him. His name is Dennis McKee. He wants to open some accounts and will probably want to borrow some money for his business.”

So far, so good, I thought to myself. Then Jim proceeded to say, “now Dennis is not going to be your ordinary bank customer. He is a little rough around the edges. I don’t think he reads very well, and he might come into the bank without a shirt on; he might be barefoot; he probably hasn’t shaved in a week. He’s also pretty loud and cusses a lot.”

Now I’m thinking, this is not going to go well. Jim continues, “oh, by the way, Dennis just got out of prison not too long ago.” He paused for a few long seconds and continued, “he served 17 years, but I really think he has turned his life around.”

I’m nervous. The Vice Chairman of one of the largest banks in the country – my employer – has just told me to help someone that would never even get an account open in most banks. Jim said, “Danny, I’m sending Dennis out there right now. See what you can do to help him and let me know if there are any problems.”

“Yes sir, Mr. Berry,” is all I could think to say.

Within an hour or so, I received a call that Dennis McKee was in the bank to see me. I waited for him to come to my office, and I truly had no idea what to expect. I had been wondering ever since I hung up the phone with Jim Berry what Dennis could have possibly done to serve 17 years in prison. And, what if I couldn’t help him? Was Dennis a violent offender? He sure sounded like it from Jim’s description. Should I be nervous about my own safety; should I be nervous about being fired if I didn’t help him? All those thoughts were running through my mind as Dennis entered my office.

Thankfully, Dennis had a t-shirt on. He was in shorts and flip-flops and had a young woman with him. He was loud, and he had the deep, sort of threatening voice of an ex-con (that was how I imagined all convicts sounded). We got right down to business. He wanted to open his accounts, he admitted to me that he was nearly illiterate with only a third grade education, and I spent the next hour getting comfortable with one of the most engaging and interesting bank customer characters that I have met.

​

Dennis told me that he was in the video rental business and the name of his company was International Videos. In prison, he became fascinated with movie videotapes and conceived an idea that he could trade videos out of his inventory with small video store operators and get a few dollars with the exchange. He used that cash to buy more and more inventory, and he worked out of the trunk of his car until he accumulated enough videos to require a storefront operation.

It wasn’t long after my first meeting with Dennis that he applied for a loan for $75,000 to purchase more videos. Although he had received and repaid a few other small loans, this would be the largest loan Dennis had ever received up to that point. On paper, and by our underwriting standards, he did not qualify for the loan. However, I had kept Jim Berry informed along the way, and he told me not to worry that he personally supported the loan approval.

The thing that I learned to appreciate about Dennis was his persistence, fearlessness, hard work, and imagination. If he didn’t like the answer, he would call the highest official in any company, including the CEO, to register his complaint. He had the remarkable ability to get through the gate-keepers with his brash statements and charisma.

​

Shortly after I approved the $75,000 loan, Dennis was back again for a $100,000 loan to open his second video store. He had found a corner near a new Blockbuster and wanted to be as close to them as possible. He figured out that Blockbuster angered their customers by only having a few new movie releases available for their customers, and his approach was to over purchase new releases so that Blockbuster customers would walk over to his store. It was a simple, but brilliant strategy that worked exceedingly well. And to top it off, his video stores were always a grade above Blockbuster in look and feel.

The more I listened to Dennis’ strategy and saw his remarkable marketing techniques, the more I knew that he had an instinctive ability to sell products that is not learned in the classroom. I thought then, as I do now, that his IQ might be scary high even though his lack of a formal education limited him in some ways. His natural marketing abilities were amazing.

Dennis began to make a lot of money. In spite of bookkeepers and accountants stealing many thousands of dollars from him along the way, he repaid his loans ahead of schedule, bought a big house, drove expensive cars, partied with beautiful women, and lived a life he could never have imagined.

​

As his businesses and net worth grew, I assigned him to one of our young, attractive, female loan officers. She was a typical stiff banker that followed all the rules, but was very capable of handling any customer. When Dennis applied for a loan to get a facelift, she told him that he would need collateral for the $20 thousand loan. Dennis said, “No problem, let’s go to your copy room.” The loan officer was caught off guard, but followed him. Dennis lifted the lid on the copier, put his face on the glass, pressed the copy button, and handed her a Xerox copy of his face. He said, “Here’s your collateral!”

The loan officer came to my office and told me what happened. I said, “Well, put the copy of his face in his credit file and make the loan.” Dennis was never a day late with his payment.

On another occasion, the loan officer needed to get a document signed. Dennis was at home and said that she was welcome to come to his house. When she got there, Dennis said he would give her a tour. His house was big and beautiful, and he was naturally proud to show it. What the loan officer saw, however, was surprising, if not a little shocking.

​

When the loan officer got back to the bank a couple of hours later, she came to my office and said that I would not believe what she had just seen. She said that Dennis had given her a tour of his house including his bedroom. In the bedroom were things she had never seen before such as a smoke/fog machine, sex toys, an assortment of condoms, a large screen TV with cameras pointed at the bed, etc. She said Dennis never even flinched when he showed her, but also never once made any inappropriate suggestions. She was at a loss for words. She knew that she should leave, but had a curious desire to see what else was there. We both agreed that if we had spent the better part of our youth in prison and had as much money as Dennis, we would probably party as hard as he was doing. He had a lot of catching up to do.

​

While I don’t make it a practice to become friends with customers, Dennis is an exception. During that time, he was an open book and had a fascinating story of turning his criminal behavior into hard work and success. I admired that. Even though he had been taken advantage of by those that knew numbers better than he did, he knew that he could trust me. The more we got to know each other, the more he told me. He would spend hours telling stories of his antics – some criminal and some just funny practical jokes. I’ve heard him say numerous times that he was good at stealing stuff, but not so good at getting away with it. And, right after he had signed for one of his loans, he said, “It’s funny that you are loaning me all this money when I have robbed one of your branches in the past.” He told me the story, and sure enough, our bank had acquired University Savings where he had done the deed during his criminal days. We still laugh about that.

​

When I told Dennis in 1991 that I was moving to San Antonio because of my wife’s job, we were both a little sad. He asked me what I was going to do, and I said that I didn’t know since there were no jobs with my bank there. After a few days, he said that I should talk to Jim Berry. Even though I had updated Jim periodically on Dennis’ bank activities, I wouldn’t say that I had a relationship with him that would allow me to ask a favor. However, Dennis did. When Jim heard from Dennis that I was leaving the bank he sent word to me that I should not resign, but take a leave of absence instead. He said that I shouldn’t worry, that a job would be available at some point for me in San Antonio. That was the last I ever heard from Jim, but within a month of my move, the manager of personnel called me in for an interview. I was hired that day in a comparable position to what I had in Houston in spite of massive layoffs at that time in the San Antonio bank. I can thank Dennis McKee for his call to Jim without my knowledge, and I can thank Jim Berry for being the type of executive that took the time to help Dennis and me along the way.

​

​