Event To Honor Kurokawa On Jan. 22

Financial leaders are known for investing. Duane Kurokawa’s biggest investment has been made to the Wolf Point community.

Kurokawa, who has served as a local bank president since 2008, will be honored with a retirement party at the Sherman Inn from 3 to 6 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 22, after 42 years in the banking business.

“It’s been a great career,” Kurokawa said. “As a lifelong resident of Wolf Point, I enjoyed working with the staff and community. It was a great opportunity for me and my family. I appreciate all those that I worked with.”

Although he enjoyed success inside the bank, he has made giant contributions throughout the community. He served on the Wolf Point City Council through the 1980s. As a member of the parks and recreation committee, they developed Borge Park.

Kurokawa has served as both president and as a director for the Wolf Point Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture. He was also a member of the Airport Golf Club board.

He served as the chairman of Wolf Point’s centennial celebration in 2015 and also on the Wild Horse Stampede 75th anniversary celebration committee.

“That was a fun time,” Kurokawa said of the centennial celebration. “They made me and my wife, Rosie, the grand marshals of the rodeo that year.”

That year’s fantastic parade included floats spotlighting different decades of the community.

“We went through steamboat days through modern times,” he said of the parade entries.

He is pleased that he helped form the Western Bank Endowment fund that contributes to several projects throughout the community. Recipients have included the Northeast Montana Veterans Memorial, Wolf Point Museum, Wolf Point High School gym, new concession stand at the rodeo grounds and a mammography machine campaign.

After helping make Borge Park a reality years before, Kurokawa enjoyed the foundation recently giving to the new playground fund.

“It came full circle,” Kurokawa said. His banking career began in the late 1970s when Western National Bank president Gib Nichols and chairman of the board Bob Appelgren recruited him to work at the bank while he was still in college. Kurokawa credits the great reputation of his parents, Art and Dorothy, for helping him receive the job offer.

“I give credit to my parents and family for the bank wanting to hire me,” he said.

Kurokawa started with the bank’s computer technology.

“It was the career path that they wanted to lead me down,” he noted.

He didn’t serve in that capacity long because loan officer Marvin Presser then purchased the GM dealership. Kurokawa was moved to become a loan officer for consumer loans.

“Everything was new to me at that time,” Kurokawa said.

But he found it fulfilling to help area residents with commercial and agricultural loans.

“It was rewarding to see people prosper and succeed,” he said.

Before becoming president of the bank in 2008, he served under past presidents Nichols and then R.J. Doornek.

During these years, Western National Bank changed to Western Bank in the 1980s. The local bank became part of Opportunity Bank in 2019.

“It was bittersweet,” Kurokawa said of changing to Opportunity Bank.

“We were a small, single- unit bank. We were getting pushed to our capacity to lend to consumers. We went from a $100 million bank to a $1 billion bank.”

He is proud that his family has been a part of Wolf Point for five generations and that his son, Aaron, started the duties of market president at Opportunity Bank on Jan. 1. Aaron has been working at the bank for 11 years.

“He will do a good job. He will probably do a better job than I did,” Duane said.