SW Graduate School of Banking Announces 2025 Distinguished Service and Distinguished Alumnus Awards

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SW Graduate School of Banking Announces 2025 Distinguished Service and Distinguished Alumnus Awards

2025-04-05 02:14 Last Updated At：02:20

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 4, 2025--

The SW Graduate School of Banking at SMU Cox (SWGSB), a nationally renowned source for banking executive education, has announced the SW Graduate School of Banking’s highest honors for 2025. H. Gary Blankenship, chairman, CEO and chief lending officer of Bank of the West, will be honored with the Distinguished Service Award on May 29, 2025, and Ron Butler, chairman and CEO of First Financial Bank Abilene Region, executive vice president and CAO of First Financial Bankshares, Inc., and a graduate of SWGSB Class XXXVII, will be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award on June 5, 2025.

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“We’re proud to announce these award recipients who have contributed immense time and talent to the betterment of their communities, their banking institutions, and SWGSB,” said William T. Chittenden, Ph.D., president and CEO of SWGSB. “They represent the best of SWGSB, and we are honored to present them with these awards.”

H. Gary Blankenship
Distinguished Service Award
Born in Lockney, Texas in 1940, Gary Blankenship began his banking career as a National Bank Examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stationed in Denver, Boulder, and Grand Junction, Colorado. He has been chairman and CEO of Greater Southwest Bancshares, Inc., and Bank of the West since chartering the bank in 1986. Bank of the West has grown to include nine locations in Texas in Flower Mound, Grapevine, Horseshoe Bay, Irving, Lewisville, Marble Falls, Ponder, and Vernon. Blankenship embodies the bank’s motto of, “It’s personal with Bank of the West.” He was previously president and CEO of two other local banks and served several years in the corporate structure of other large Texas banking organizations as an officer and director.

A leader in the industry and his community, he has served on the Texas Department of Banking Commissioner’s Council, as a trustee on the Independent Bankers Association of Texas Insurance Bond Trust, and as a director of National Bancshares of Texas, Inc. He previously served on the board and as vice chairman of Adfitech, a mortgage technology and consulting company. Blankenship is a director of The Independent Bankers Bank (TIB), a $2.9 billion-asset bank that serves as a national community correspondent bankers bank.

Blankenship received the prestigious Chairman’s Award for the Independent Bankers Association of Texas. In 2013, he and his wife, Cynthia, were named recipients of the prestigious D. E. Box Citizens of the Year Award for Grapevine, Texas. He was named one of the top 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth for 2016 and 2017.

Blankenship is an active community servant and is a member of the boards of directors of the Irving Chamber of Commerce, Irving Symphony, and Dallas Summer Musicals. He has a master’s of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Dallas.

Blankenship graduated from West Texas State University, now known as West Texas A&M, with a bachelor’s degree in Finance and Accounting in 1969 and received a master’s of Business Administration from the University of Dallas in 1982. He has completed various other courses in commercial lending, bank accounting, and one year of law school.

Married to Cynthia Blankenship, a banker and cofounder of the Bank of the West, they have three daughters, three granddaughters, and one grandson. Their daughters are also involved in the bank and/or mortgage company.

Ron Butler
Distinguished Alumnus Award
Ron Butler is the chairman and CEO of First Financial Bank Abilene Region in Abilene, Texas, a $14 billion bank with 79 branches located throughout Texas. Butler is also executive vice president and CAO of First Financial Bankshares, Inc. He has been with First Financial for 31 years and previously was CEO of First Financial Bank in Eastland and Stephenville.

Butler has been active in the community serving on numerous boards and is the former board chair of the Abilene Industrial Foundation and Abilene Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the Advisory Council of the Excellence in Banking program at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. Butler served a six-year term on the Brazos River Authority board of directors, appointed by Governor Rick Perry.

He has served numerous terms as a director of the Texas Bankers Association and is currently serving as its vice chair. He was inducted into the Texas Bankers Hall of Fame in 2023. Butler has a bachelor’s of Business Administration degree from Texas Tech University and a master’s of Business Administration degree from Tarleton State University. He is a graduate of SWGSB Class XXXVII. Butler was named a Distinguished Alumni by Texas Tech University in 2024.

Married to Lorilei Butler, and they have two grown children, a son and a daughter who are also graduates of the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University.

To learn more about SWGSB’s nationally renowned program that propels careers, visit www.swgsb.org/summer2025.

ABOUT THE SW GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BANKING AT SMU COX

Since 1957, the SW Graduate School of Banking at SMU Cox (SWGSB) has educated and empowered bankers in all positions, other financial services professionals and affiliates, regulators, bank directors, and aspiring bank directors with knowledge and relationships that strengthen careers, organizations, and communities. SWGSB is a nationally recognized leader in banking and commercial lending education, bank management training, and bank director training programs. Learn more at swgsb.org or call 214.768.2991 for more information.

Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky's record brings joy to hockey and beyond sports

2025-04-08 01:49 Last Updated At：01:50

NEW YORK (AP) — Alex Ovechkin could not contain his happiness moments after scoring his 895th goal to break Wayne Gretzky's NHL record.

After firing the puck into the net, Ovechkin turned and did a belly-flop slide down the ice like he had just won a pee-wee hockey game. The gap-toothed grin didn't leave his face for hours.

“We did it!” he told teammates in an electric visiting arena with over 17,000 fans locked in on his every move. "It’s history! Yeah!”

Ovechkin was the epitome of joyfulness on goal No. 895, just like he's been on so many of his previous 894, replicating jumping into a fountain in Washington when he and the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in 2018.

“Almost," Ovechkin said.

That title, the franchise's first championship, was the Capitals' high-water mark, but this stuck out in a different way.

The Cup gets handed out once a year. Ovechkin broke a record that stood for more than three decades, with the chance for his reign to last even longer. At a time of the season in a team-centric sport that is usually reserved only for playoff races, Ovechkin's “GR8 Chase” captivated the hockey community and reached the rest of the world clearly eager to witness something special.

“It’s a testament to Ovi,” said center Dylan Strome, who along with Tom Wilson had the assists on Ovechkin's record-breaker Sunday in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders. “Everyone wants to see him succeed because he’s such a happy guy. It doesn’t matter if he scores a goal or someone else scores a goal: He’s just as happy. And I think that’s a credit to him and his character, and you could see why other people are so happy for him because of the way he treats other people.”

The charismatic Russian superstar has made a career out of scoring like no one else and commemorating the moments like few others. Whether it was jumping into the glass or mimicking that his stick was on fire, Ovechkin has become one of the faces of the game in part because of his child-like love of the game, even in his 20th NHL season. He is a little kid at heart playing a grown-up sport.

It's a love of the game that resonates far beyond the Capitals.

"You just smile every time you see it," coach Spencer Carbery said, echoing Strome about Ovechkin being just as happy to see his teammates score. “It speaks to him, but also who he is as a captain and as a leader, of the happiness and joy that he has to win and to see others have success and others to score goals, as well.”

No team or goaltender wanted to be the one to give up No. 895, but the Islanders — and netminder Ilya Sorokin, 10 years younger than Ovechkin, giving the fellow Russian his stick when asked — still had full appreciation of the moment.

“No matter what team you were cheering for tonight, everyone was a hockey fan," Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “Everyone on our side and their side can appreciate Ovi's accomplishment."

The run-up to the accomplishment was half the fun. Goal-counters from Washington to Moscow tracked the quest. Ticket prices surged and subsided based on how close Ovechkin was to catching and passing Gretzky.

If the pressure was mounting on Ovechkin at 39 in the twilight of his career, he didn't show it. And the Capitals made it their life's work to get him the record.

It finally came midway through the 77th game out of 82, bringing relief to everyone involved.

“Over the last couple of weeks, it has now turned into he’s right there,” Carbery said. “And for us, especially as coaches, we go to the hundreds and hundreds of hours that we’ve been trying to figure out ways to get him the next goal. (When) you’ve been working 80-hour weeks for the last two years to try to help get the next goal, it’s a pretty special moment for us to celebrate.”

The NHL and the Capitals put together a video montage of greats from Simone Biles and Michael Phelps to Tom Brady, LeBron James and Derek Jeter to congratulate Ovechkin. In that moment, it was clear this accomplishment transcended hockey — and even sports. Vladimir Putin added his congratulations after the sun rose in Moscow on Monday.

“It’s great for the game,” Ovechkin said. "It’s great for us to be involved for this moment. ... Right now, people celebrate, people are happy and I’m just happy to be a part of it.”

Longtime teammate John Carlson, who assisted on the tying 894th goal on Friday night, said he and the Capitals “were just along for the ride.” So was everyone else watching, and Ovechkin provided a ride of a lifetime. He made sure it has been a fun one.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl