Premier Banks founder remembered for faith, financial legacy

From buses to banks, Don Regan has left a rich legacy in the Twin Cities that continues to bear fruit in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and the community. The faith-filled philanthropist died Oct. 23 at age 91.

Best known as the founder of Premier Banks, which began in 1974 and thrives today with 20 locations, his generosity spread far and wide, always motivated by his Catholic faith. It started with Maplewood State Bank, which he opened in a double-wide trailer at White Bear and Beam Avenues in St. Paul. It later became Premier Bank Minnesota and Premier Bank Rochester, now among the top 10 banks in the state in total assets. As the business grew, he supported a wide range of organizations, both inside and outside the Church.

Before opening Premier Banks, he had built a successful bus company called St. Paul and Suburban Bus Company on St. Paul’s East Side. Although he later sold the company to focus on banking, he never forgot his first bus contract —?with Benedictine Sister Claire Lynch of Archbishop Murray Memorial High School, which later merged with Hill High School to become Hill-Murray School in Maplewood. That connection forged a relationship that motivated years of generosity to the school, which continued into the later years of his life.

His faith-filled giving was a model for his children, who both acknowledged and carried on his practices.

“We always learned from him by example,” wrote daughter Katie Nath, who works as vice president and legal counsel at the bank, and whose husband, Andrew Nath, also works at the bank as executive vice president and vice chairman, in an email to The Catholic Spirit. “He didn’t do a lot of preaching. He did a lot of showing — in a humble way, without comment. We learned how to be good people, good Catholics, by watching him. We were so incredibly blessed by our parents, and the family and life they created for us.”

She continued: “We go to funerals. We bring plants to the cemeteries on Memorial Day. We take the time to learn who people are and where they came from, who is a part of their family. And, it’s always a bonus if he (Don) finds out they played hockey. Then, they could talk for hours. We learned to give to others less fortunate. I am so grateful for the spirit of generosity he raised us with.”

Don and his wife, Jean, were married for 63 years before she died in 2018. They raised seven children, all of whom attended Hill-Murray, as did 15 grandchildren. Don continued to follow sports at Hill-Murray, and also watched his grandchildren play. Just three weeks before he died, he watched a grandchild score a goal at Aldrich Arena in St. Paul. Don and Jean were parishioners of St. Peter in North St. Paul, which he also supported spiritually and financially.

“I can’t begin to list all the entities Dad supported,” Katie Nath said. “Of course, Hill-Murray and the church and school of St. Peter in North St. Paul are his most treasured and longest standing charitable beneficiaries.?Mom and Dad were parishioners there since 1959.?He supported every Catholic church and school on the East Side (of St. Paul), and many others outside of his community. He supported NET Ministries, St. Paul’s Outreach, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and other cancer research charities, Catholic Charities, Second Harvest Food Shelf, school district foundations, CSCOE (Catholic Schools Center of Excellence), youth hockey associations, veterans’ associations, the Catholic Athletic Association and many others.”

In 2016, Regan bought the chancery building and archbishop’s residence on Summit Avenue for $3.2 million after the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis filed for Reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The money was used to help compensate people who filed claims against the archdiocese, including victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Another marker in his life was winning The Catholic Spirit’s Leading with Faith Award in 2004. His son, Patrick, won it in 2007 (for his work as president and owner of Hastings Bus Co. and Minnesota Coaches, Inc.), and Premier Banks President Mark Novitzki, who started at the company in 1983, won it in 2019.

When Patrick Regan received his award in 2007, he gave credit to his father for instilling the values that have helped him be successful in a business he took over from his father. “I try to emulate my dad as much as anybody,” he said then. “My dad stayed focused on making sure that the credit goes where it’s due, and that’s usually to our employees.”

Perhaps, one of the most indicative expressions of who Don Regan was came not so much in a check that he wrote, but in a sentimental gift he gave to St. Peter from the town of Le Roy near the Iowa border in southern Minnesota, where he grew up.

The church building there was torn down after a new one was built in 1955, the year Don and Jean were married. When they moved from Le Roy in 1959, they took with them a crate of stained glass from the old church. That stained glass was installed in the adoration chapel at St. Peter in the 1990s.

Don wrote a four-page letter in 1999 to the pastor of St. Patrick in Le Roy, recounting memories of the old St. Patrick church and life in Le Roy, and letting the priest know that the windows were now letting light into an adoration chapel where Don was spending lots of time in prayer.

“There is, for me, a profound peace here,” Don wrote about the St. Peter adoration chapel, “a shared presence of a lady I knew (his mother, Agnes) … the people of Le Roy and all the parishioners and priests who until 44 years ago worshipped together in the old St. Patrick’s church.”

For two more decades, Don Regan would pray in that adoration chapel, bringing to Christ in the Eucharist his many intentions. Now, his children are carrying on that legacy.

“I have spent nearly my entire career working with and for him,” Katie Nath wrote in a letter describing her relationship with him. “He loved his work and the people he worked with.?That was so obvious.?His warmth, his generosity, his vision, and that of all his hard–working friends and partners, touched the lives of many people.?The Don and Jean Regan Family are honored to be able to carry on their legacy together.”

A private family funeral was held Nov. 21 at St. Peter in North St. Paul, with burial at St. Mary’s Cemetery in Minneapolis.