Once given a chance in banking, Aubrey Lee Sr. 'did the work,' which lives on today

When Dave Bing joined the Detroit Pistons in 1966, he quickly made it known that the team’s home court, Cobo Arena, would be a location where he successfully conducted business more often than not.

After earning the National Basketball Association’s Rookie of the Year award at the conclusion of the 1966-67 season, Bing was even more of a problem for opposing defenses in his second professional campaign, as he led the NBA in scoring with a 27.1 points per game average.

However, on Monday, Mark S. Lee wanted to talk about another type of downtown space where Bing did work during the early days of his Pistons career. That location, a little less than a half mile away from the old Cobo Arena, was home to NBD Bank.

Lee may not have memorized all of the statistics compiled during Bing’s stellar Hall of Fame basketball career, but Lee has endless positive things to say about a man from Huntington, West Virginia, who hired Bing into a management-training program at NBD during one of Bing’s earliest off-seasons with the Pistons — when seven-figure or even six-figure contracts were not the norm in the NBA. That man is Lee’s father, the late Aubrey W. Lee Sr., who was an African American trailblazer in the banking industry.

And as Mark Lee tells it, his dad provided a helpful assist to Bing, which helped lay a foundation that Bing eventually converted to business success and other community leadership positions, including mayor of Detroit. And during National Financial Literacy Month in April — or any other day for that matter — Mark Lee also wants the public to know that his father handed out his biggest assist to the city of Detroit through people of color he hired who ultimately became leaders in banking and in the community, along with the commercial loan opportunities he provided to local businesses and churches.

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“He always made it a point to reach back and help others,” Mark Lee said of his father, who with a bachelor’s and master’s degree, was hired as a teller by the National Bank of Detroit in 1957. But by 1980, he was the chairman, president and CEO of NBD Troy Bank.

Mark Lee, 62, the founder and CEO of The LEE Group, a marketing and consulting company, described having a court-side seat, of sorts, as a 10-year-old when his father and a small group of other Black bankers in Detroit came together monthly at his family’s northwest Detroit home on Cheyenne Street. These were the earliest meetings of the Urban Banking Forum, of which Mark Lee’s father was a founding member.

“There were about five or six bankers at first, and they would come in and socialize a bit and then get right down to business,” recalled Mark Lee, who viewed the scene while perched at the top of the stairs with his older brothers Aubrey Jr. and David. “They would talk about the state of the industry, personal experiences, and challenges facing young people.”

Mark Lee joked that on the days of the meetings he and his brothers were most interested in converging on the kitchen afterward to devour the leftover finger foods and desserts prepared for the meeting by their mother, Jeane. But on Thursday, Mark Lee, whose father’s name now appears on a scholarship that benefits local students, could not have been any more serious when he described the impact made by those early Black bankers in Detroit.

“My father’s legacy through his connection with people like Tyrone Davenport, Linda Forte, Walt Watkins, Shirley Stancato and many others that worked with my dad laid a strong foundation for banking executives moving forward,” said Mark Lee, whose list included professionals that all rose to senior executive positions and beyond in banking, while also being associated with a host of vital community causes and institutions. “We should never forget this history.”

On Tuesday, Jason Tinsley, the market manager for J.P. Morgan’s Michigan Private Bank, made it clear that he will never forget Aubrey Lee Sr. (Oct. 26, 1934-Oct. 9, 2015). In fact, Tinsley gave the impression that his first meeting with Lee very early in Tinsley’s career, at what is now the JP Morgan Chase Detroit headquarters on Woodward Avenue downtown, will forever be etched in his mind.

“'Mr. Tinsley, it’s incumbent upon you as a young Black man in banking, and probably a future leader, to be very involved with the UFSC (formerly the Urban Bankers Forum),'” Tinsley respectfully said in his best Aubrey Lee professional voice as he recalled the first time he was summoned to Aubrey Lee’s office.

The 48-year-old Tinsley, who has worked in the banking industry for 27 years, says Aubrey Lee’s simple advice significantly helped his career get off on the right foot. Before the appearance of employee resource groups in the workplace, the UFSC (Urban Financial Services Coalition) and the Urban Bankers Forum before it provided African Americans in financial services an opportunity to network and develop professionally in a supportive environment.

Tinsley recalled that it did not take long to recognize Aubrey Lee’s wisdom. But Tinsley said it also was easy to follow Lee’s direction because Lee was so approachable.

“I knew him as a person, not as a historical figure,” said Tinsley, who on Tuesday afternoon proudly read off a list of Lee’s illustrious accomplishments, while also providing context, such as the fact that Lee announced that he would not recruit Blacks for banking positions if he could not promise them an opportunity for upward mobility. “I could look at Aubrey Lee Sr. and see myself. I could say: ‘That’s me, a regular guy who did the work and found success.’ I always looked forward to those opportunities to get together with him at the Skyline Club or wherever he wanted to meet. And we wouldn’t just talk about banking; we would also talk about life.”

Hubert Wiley never had a one-on-one dinner meeting at the Skyline Club with Aubrey Lee Sr. However, the Detroit native said Lee touched him in a different way.

When Wiley joined Comerica Bank in 1993 and began attending Urban Bankers Forum meetings roughly a year afterward, Wiley remembers that “Lee’s presence was always definitely felt.” But because of Wiley’s position with Comerica at the time, which he recalls being either “assistant manager I” or “assistant manager II,” Wiley felt it was best to be seen but not heard because there were so many more experienced Black bankers in attendance. Nonetheless, what Wiley quietly gleaned from Aubrey Lee and the Urban Bankers Forum would shape his banking career.

“What I appreciated the most was the focus on professionalism,” said Wiley, a product of Cass Technical High School (Class of 1975) and Wayne State University, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration. “Being active with the Urban Bankers also taught you how to identify opportunities both within your bank and the entire industry, and equally important was the commitment to our community, which the Urban Bankers Forum was all about.”

With guiding principles provided by the Urban Bankers, Wiley began to establish his career and he ultimately found his sweet spot overseeing Comerica Bank’s branch within the Renaissance Center, where he determined the “best way to help a customer was to be honest.”

At the time of Wiley’s retirement last September, his business card read: Banking Center Manager/Vice President IV. More important, Wiley said he felt fulfilled when he retired because he believed he had given all that he had to give, and because he was leaving behind colleagues who share his commitment to serving the community through the banking industry. As an example, Wiley pointed to Comerica Bank’s National Community Impact Manager Linda Nosegbe, who is heading Comerica’s fifth annual Prom Dress Drive, which begins Monday and runs through April 21, at 11 participating Comerica locations that will collect new or gently used dresses for southeast Michigan students that will be distributed by the Detroit nonprofit Jackets for Jobs.

And while the Prom Dress Drive is taking place, Wiley, in “retirement,” will continue to engage in activities to help Detroiters as best he can, including serving as a consultant for the Fellowship Nonprofit Housing Corporation (out of Greater Christ Baptist Church), whose mission is to provide single family homes for low- and middle-income families; volunteering with Wayne County Community College District’s Chancellor’s High School Leadership Institute, which stresses the value of community college to high school students across Detroit; and, using feedback he has received from Detroit high school students, Wiley is in the process of developing a financial literacy program that addresses “how much you need to live comfortably and safely.”

For the 65-year-old Wiley, finding new ways to help address community needs during his retirement years makes all the sense in the world given the example that was laid out for him roughly 30 years ago by the Urban Bankers Forum in Detroit.

“I stand on the shoulders of earlier Black bankers in Detroit,” Wiley stated. “And my motivation today is to continue to serve our community by applying the knowledge and experience I learned in the banking industry in an excellent way.”

Scott Talley is a native Detroiter, a proud product of Detroit Public Schools and lifelong lover of Detroit culture in all of its diverse forms. In his second tour with the Free Press, which he grew up reading as a child, he is excited and humbled to cover the city’s neighborhoods and the many interesting people who define its various communities. Contact him at: stalley@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @STalleyfreep. Read more of Scott's stories at www.freep.com/mosaic/detroit-is/.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: A commitment to inclusion drove Aubrey Lee Sr.'s journey in banking