“Banking is actually my fourth career,” confesses Bayshore Branch Manager Gloria Rosenberg. Her long and storied working life will come to a close when she retires at the end of this month.

Gloria started at North Shore Bank in 2008. Previously, she’d worked as an interior decorator after graduating from UW-Milwaukee and Waukesha County Technical College, and then spent 14 years with Wisconsin Gas, holding several positions before becoming a supervisor of industrial marketing. When Wisconsin Energy took over the utility, Gloria left. She and her husband, David, opened a retail store for lovers of food and cooking, Gourmet Outfitters, in Mequon in 1995. Another location followed in Brookfield.

But things took a turn when the economy went south the following decade. Then the Mequon mall that hosted the original store went into receivership. “We just took it as a sign from God,” Gloria says.

“Of course, in the process of closing, we had a big going-out-of-business sale,” she says. One regular customer was former Fox Point Teller Jan Tishberg’s sister. Jan — who retired herself at the end of last July — stopped in with her sister and suggested that Gloria apply for a spot at the bank’s forthcoming branch in Grafton. Gloria did so and got a job as a teller, and later was promoted to Universal Banker. Eventually, Lyneen Fischer, who was a District Manager at the time, named her the Branch Manager for the new Bayshore office.

“I was so intrigued by her background in managing a unique kitchen shop that we just had to have her help with the opening of our new branch in Grafton,” Lyneen recalls. “Gloria’s skills in event planning helped Grafton develop many of the customer programs that were successful in the opening of the branch. She integrated those skills with her customer and employee interaction. It was natural for her to become a branch manager at Bayshore with her retail background.”

Patience, helping, and giving
Although Gloria had plenty of business experience, she acknowledges there was still a learning curve when she came to North Shore Bank. “I did not know much about banking at that point, so it was kind of crazy and stressful for a little while, but there were a lot of patient people along the way.”

Those patient people were a bit of a surprise for her, she says, based on her previous experience with bigger organizations. “People here are extremely helpful,” Gloria says. “There isn’t the backbiting and criticism that you find in many larger businesses. People want to help you, rather than trip you up. When I started, that was one of the first things that really stuck out to me.”

In a sense, it was a welcome reminder, too, of her time running Gourmet Outfitters. “I did have a similar experience in the food industry. Foodies tend to be very giving, open people. They’re always willing to help you and take time.”

The beauty of building relationships
Gloria is happy to have gotten some “behind-the-scenes” experience before saying good-bye to the working world. “It was a learning experience,” she says of her eight years in the banking universe. “I kind of took it all for granted before this.”

Especially enlightening, she says, was seeing how much bankers cared about their customers.

“It’s so important in the banking world to help people become financially successful, and in turn, they become very loyal to you,” she says. “That’s kind of the beauty of it — the relationships you build.”

“Gloria was an integral part of the Grafton branch’s successful launch and worked extremely hard to make the Stone House Gallery an inviting community space for local artists to present their work,” East and Shorewood Area Branch Manager Dane Didier, who was her manager at Grafton, says. “As a fellow film buff, I will miss our discussions around cinema past and present.”

So, is she worried that her retirement won’t take, and that she’ll find herself in a fifth job?

“I think it’s for real!” she says, laughing. Right now, she has no immediate plans. In October, she and David will go on a European “Viking river cruise” that takes them from Budapest to Amsterdam. “We’re going with some good friends, so we’re really excited about that. And that’s as far as I have thought.”

But that doesn’t mean Gloria will rest on her laurels.

“I’m not quite sure what will be next, but I’m sure I will come up with something,” she says. “I’m not a sit-at-home type.”