Ryan Warner has represented Huntington County in the banking world for nearly 40 years at the state, regional, and national levels. And he has done it all without ever really “leaving home.”

Warner chairs the board directors at Bippus State Bank. It’s a position he assumed after formally retiring as the bank’s CEO in 2021. His day-to-day duties as president of Bippus State Bank ended in 2019, 42 years after his first day there as a teller, fresh from an intense, 18-month degree program at International Business College in Fort Wayne.

Ryan Warner spent his formative years on his parents Max and Carolyn’s farm in Clear Creek Township. His boyhood chores honed his appreciation for hard work and determination, but he also heeded his parents’ advice not to follow them into farming. He excelled in his business and accounting classes at Huntington North High School and headed for International after taking part in the inaugural event at North Arena — the Commencement of the Class of 1975.

Ryan jumped at the chance to take an accelerated accounting degree program at IBC because, he recalls, “I really wanted a paycheck.” After 16 1/2 months of coursework his final six weeks was a required internship. John Easterday, a friend of his from Faith Chapel United Methodist Church, was working at Community State Bank and told Warner he thought “Bippus might have something” available on a short-term basis. It did. The internship worked out, and Ryan joined his neighborhood bank full-time on New Year’s Day 1977 as a “note teller,” processing loan payments.

The Bippus State Bank president at the time was Clarence Diefenbaugh, a long-time friend of the Warner family. He took his recommendation to hire Ryan to the bank’s board of directors, which agreed that the local boy was likely to make good. Ryan was promoted to assistant cashier in the summer of 1978. Two years later, Diefenbaugh passed away, and when Bill Garshweiler became bank president Warner was elevated to cashier — the bank’s number two executive position. After six years in that role, Warner became bank president when Garshweiler retired in March, 1987. At age 29, Ryan Warner was one of the youngest chief executive officers of any bank in the United States.

Bippus State Bank had been established in 1911 and was a fixture in the Warren Township village. As well as being the hometown of celebrity sportscaster Chris Schenkel, Bippus became known as a banking destination for area farmers. Its new president, who’d attended grade school in Bippus, felt the bank could — and should — expand. Huntington was just a few miles away, and the move was made in 1985 when Bippus State Bank opened its first “branch” in a single-family dwelling at Jefferson Street and Hauenstein Road. Before long, the house came down and, in 1997, the main office of Bippus State Bank was built on the lot.

The bank’s asset growth — from at the high seven figures to more than $360 million today — was overseen by Warner, his directors, and colleagues. Bippus State became a statewide presence as Warner moved into leadership roles outside the office. He and his wife, the former Patty Feemster, eventually settled with their three daughters in Clear Creek Township and Ryan became heavily involved in community activities.

“I’ve always tried to make things better for Huntington County,” he said recently. “That’s what community banks do.’”

An array of organizations have benefitted from his help. He has headed the boards of the local United Way and American Red Cross chapters, as well as the county’s Economic Development Commission. Warner was a long-time member of the Parkview Huntington Hospital Board of Directors, and chaired Parkview’s “Vision 2000” campaign to raise crucial matching funds for construction of the current hospital. Around the same time, he was serving the boards of Huntington College and the Quayle Vice Presidential Learning Center in advisory capacities.

Warner also felt that smaller banks needed to keep pace with fast-changing economic circumstances “and tell our story more effectively.” That conviction led him to volunteer for important roles in state and national banking organizations. He has chaired the board of directors of the Independent Community Bankers of Indiana and has served on committees of the Independent Community Bankers of America and the American Bankers Association. Warner also currently serves on the board of directors of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis. These duties frequently take him to Indianapolis and Washington, D.C.

Ryan Warner can now look back on a successful and fulfilling career and ahead to enjoying more time with family and friends from the comfort and security of a place he never left — a place called home.