The erection of the new Puget Sound National Bank sign has finally been completed. Taken later in the evening on June 10, 1953, the electric sign is aglow with the bank's name. In addition, there is an digital clock which would also trade off the time with the current temperature. The bank was one of the first in the country to have a double "T" sign--temperature and time. The entire sign is 96 feet from sidewalk to top. It weighs over 8000 pounds. Beneath the clock is a small plaque indicating the bank was established in 1890. View of new sign, clock and plaque shot looking upward; photograph ordered by Puget Sound National Bank. (TNT 6-26-53, p. 4 - Ad)
Progress photographs--1950-1960; Electric signs--Tacoma--1950-1960; Puget Sound National Bank (Tacoma); Clocks & watches; Plaques--Tacoma;
Reno Odlin (R), president of the Puget Sound National Bank, and Don Franklin (L), district manager of Pacific Telephone & Telegraph, are pictured in this December, 1952, photograph standing before a topographical map of the United States with a sign indicating it represents a Radio Relay demonstration. Odlin holds a receiver to his ear as he points to the map. The Bell company moved their microwave display into the bank's lobby to demonstrate their new method, called Radio Relay, of sending hundreds of telephone conversations and TV programs over long distance. Interested spectators could try the radio relay themselves, simply by picking up a receiver and pressing a button. (TNT 12-16-52, p. 4)
Informal portrait of Puget Sound National Bank Chairman of the Board Reno Odlin. Mr. Odlin had been elected president of the American Bankers Association in 1964, the first banker from the Pacific Northwest to win this office in the organization's 90-year history. He had previously served the local and national banking industry in many leadership positions, including the Washington Bankers Assn., the Federal Reserve, and U.S. Treasury. Reno Odlin spent most of 1965 traveling to nearly every state in the union to visit bankers, government and business leaders, in addition to several foreign countries to discuss international issues regarding money. (Provorse: Banking on Independence, p. 120-121)
