History

Where we came from

In June of 1956, the Magnificent Seven Federal Government employees all formed SFCU. Volunteers ran the show, accepting deposits and making loans to their fellow members out of our first office in the Great Western Savings building at Lincoln and Riverside.

We went on a bit of a spree after that, merging with the Navy Supply Depot Credit Union and acquiring three more: Spokane County Federal Credit Union, the Veterans Administration Credit Union, and Contented Federal Credit Union. (We like the name, and even though we don't call ourselves Contented FCU we still hope that's how we make you feel.)

Initially, employment with the federal government in Spokane served as the common bond for Spokane Federal Credit Union members. The Washington Army and Air National Guard and federal employees in 12 other counties eventually came on board, and now we have several select employee groups (SEGs) also eligible to join the club.

All those new bodies needed more room, and after the staff of Expo 74 Spokane's World's Fair cleared out, we bought their headquarters building at 601 West Mallon.

The folks at SFCU like their jobs, so we've only had four big cheeses in our whole history. Ethel Bookman was the first paid manager, followed by Don Hitzel. He supervised SFCU until 1976 when Byron Edgett took over. Byron retired at the end 2007 after 32 years of service to SFCU. Susan Blain became President/CEO in January of 2008.

We may have started out on a shoestring, with only a few hundred dollars and seven dedicated people, but today we're 13,000 members strong with around $90 million in assets.

And we have members like you to thank.