Before concluding that our grandfather Joe Sandford was always a completely proper banker and businessman, we should consider an advertisement found in the Pomona Progress Bulletin in May 1929.
Somewhere along the line Joe began selling insurance as a sideline to his job as President of the Pomona Commercial and Savings Bank.
In 1929, Joe’s sister Helen was at the height of her career as a musician and founder of the Valley Symphony Orchestra, which was receiving rave reviews throughout the region. No point in having a groundbreaking successful sister if you can’t use her to boost your business a just a little.
Not to mention your deceased father. Well, Joe was a natural as a salesperson, always happy to be talking with people, telling stories….and making sure everyone’s insurance portfolios were up to date.
Joe continued selling insurance well beyond his retirement as a banker. In a 1975 Rotary Club bulletin, we can see that he was still selling, although the words were practically identical to those that had been used in a similar bulletin 25 years earlier.
Bridging the Silences 