In 1926 George F. Karch (1907–1982) joined the Cleveland Trust Company, operating an adding machine in the proof department. Two weeks later he was promoted to the tax division of the trust department. And 47 years later he would retire as the bank’s chairman and chief executive officer. Karch had come up the hard way—selling newspapers, scrubbing pharmacy floors, laying pipeline and working as a laborer in a steel mill. After graduating from West High School, he enrolled in St. Lawrence University but dropped out less than two years later when his father lost his sight. He took night classes at Cleveland Law School while working in the bank during the day, and received his law degree in 1930. In 1940, he graduated from Rutgers University Graduate School of Banking. He was a trustee and officer of the Frank E. Bunts Educational Institute, Children’s Fresh Air Camp and Hospital, Church of the Covenant and Cleveland Clinic Foundation.