- Key takeaway: Led by its second generation of executives from the same family, a mutual thrift in Queens, New York, has remained committed to its depositor-owned roots.
- Supporting data: Maspeth Federal Savings has reported three decades of unbroken profitability under the leadership of Ken and Tom Rudzewick.
- Expert quote: "We've brought the old, traditional savings-and-loan model up to modern times so that we can compete with the big boys that are in our neighborhood." — CEO Tom Rudzewick
Ken Rudzewick's future was determined by a phone call his father made in the summer of 1956.
Ken had just graduated high school. Henry Rudzewick, a New York City firefighter, was determined to see him get a job.
"You're not going to be hanging around the house all the time," Ken, who is 88, recalled his father saying.
Henry called his friend, Franklin Frontera, president of the depositor-owned Maspeth Federal Savings. Ken started as a teller the next day.
"I had my shirt and tie on, and I walked to the bank," he told American Banker. "I lived four blocks away."
It was a fateful moment for Rudzewick and Maspeth. Rudzewick has spent his entire working life at the $2.2 billion-asset thrift, which is headquartered in the Maspeth section of Queens, and played an important role in maintaining its mutual status even as scores of other depositor-owned banks, nearly 200 since 1999, moved to convert to stock ownership.
Rudzewick began climbing the management ladder a few years after joining Maspeth. He recalls being moved off the teller line one day when his drawer ended the day $100 short. Frontera asked him if he'd like to try a different job. Rudzewick, who worried he was about to be fired, said he'd work anywhere.
"I didn't get the door, which I thought I should have gotten," Rudzewick said. "He kicked me upstairs." Rudzewick worked in the accounting department, marketing and real estate lending.
"Everybody was flexible," Rudzewick said. "We were all prepared to lend a hand in anything the bank needed."
Rudzewick reached the pinnacle of his 70-year career in 1999, when he began a 17-year stint as CEO. But after stepping down from the top job, Rudzewick didn't retire. He stayed on as Maspeth's community relations officer while also continuing to serve as a director.
By any estimate, Rudzewick was a successful CEO. Maspeth reported a profit every year he helmed it, and it enjoyed substantial growth in loans, deposits and capital. Douglas Faucette, a partner with Troutman Pepper Locke in Washington, D.C., and a director of the America's Mutual Banks trade group, said Maspeth has built a reputation as a conservative institution backed by high levels of capital.
"As long as you stick to that model, it's hard to get in trouble," Faucette told American Banker.
But Rudzewick's most important legacy may have come off the balance sheet, in the shape of the company's current leadership team. Rudzewick's son Tom succeeded him as CEO. Another son, Glenn, serves as chief lending officer.
Multigenerational family involvement is relatively common in the mutual sector, according to Faucette.
"There were a lot of people in the industry who inherited their jobs through familial relationships," he said.
The shift from father to sons appears to have worked well for Maspeth, which has remained profitable and continued its growth trend over the past decade. Its net income totaled $18.3 million in 2025, up 23% from a year earlier.
"We are in good hands at this point," Ken Rudzewick said. "The handoff was perfect."
Both Tom and Glenn Rudzewick had established successful financial services careers, Tom as a commercial real estate appraiser and Glenn in investment banking, before joining Maspeth. Both said it was the example Ken Rudzewick set in balancing work and family obligations that helped draw them to Maspeth.
"He was probably the first one to invent work-life balance, well before it was actually a term," Tom Rudzewick said of his father. "I was in the back seat of the car when he was doing appraisals around here in Maspeth for estates. All of us were always happy to see him close to the house."
Likewise, Glenn Rudzewick said he "always appreciated" his father's presence. "He was our baseball coach. He was our scout leader. He was always very involved. I wanted that for my kids."
Tom Rudzewick has been working to update Maspeth's image in recent years, upgrading its digital banking capabilities,
Maspeth has also carved out a leading role
At the same time, Maspeth is staying true to its original thrift mission, with residential mortgage and multifamily loans comprising 67% of its $1.96 billion-asset loan portfolio on Dec. 31. It's deepened its focus on local commercial real estate, but it still retains all its production.
"We've brought the old, traditional savings-and-loan model up to modern times so that we can compete with the big boys that are in our neighborhood," Tom Rudzewick said.
Both brothers said Maspeth remains committed to its mutual roots.
"I'm proud to say that doesn't look like it's going to change much," Tom Rudzewick said.
"When you're a mutual, you can look at the long game," Glenn Rudzewick added. "How you're going to treat your employees. How you're going to treat your communities."
