History of ACU

ACU Board of Directors

Bradford Stacy Board Chair	William Vroman Vice Chair	James Miller Treasurer	Brian McDaniel Secretary
Brent Finney	Vladimir Koritarov	Donald Krok	James Wescott
Not Pictured	Not Pictured
Daryl Keene	Michelle Schikora

History of ACU

The Argonne National Laboratory was just a few years old in early 1949 when its Business Manager, John H. McKinley, asked the Director of Personnel to study the feasibility of organizing a credit union for its employees. This study triggered an enthusiastic response from both Lab management and employees. With the assistance of the Illinois Credit Union League, the wheels began to roll. Meetings of interested employees were held and within a short time an interim Board of Directors was chosen. This Board applied to the State of Illinois, Department of Public Accounts for a Charter of Incorporation. An approval of Charter #1101 was received on October 21, 1949 and Argonne Credit Union was born.

Argonne Credit Union (ACU) began accepting applications for membership in January 1950. The value of each share was $5.00 with a maximum shareholding of $1000. Korean war time credit restrictions were in place and, therefore, unsecured loans were limited to $100. The maximum secured loan could not exceed $1000. The interim Board called the first meeting of the members on February 20, 1950 to elect an official slate of candidates. On that date they were proud to announce 226 fully paid shareholder/members with an additional 100 applications for membership and assets of $6700. Volunteers handled operations until a part-time clerk was hired later that year.

By law ACU is a not-for-profit cooperative. Policy matters - then and now - are set by an unpaid board elected annually from the membership at large. Its initial membership was limited to employees of Argonne National Laboratory and Atomic Energy Commission, a predecessor today's Department of Energy. As time passed the credit union's field of membership was expanded to include the employees of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, IL; the ill fated Superconducting Super Collider in Dallas, TX; as well as other smaller groups engaged in energy research and development.

The fledgling credit union grew rapidly. After two years it had 1300 members and assets of $250,000. At that time the board hired its first full-time manager/CEO, John Chonko, who served in that capacity for the next 39 years, retiring in 1991. The $1 million in assets mark was achieved in 1955 followed by the $10 million mark in 1976, and $50 million in 1985. Today its assets exceed $161 million and it provides a full range of financial services for its 12,000 plus members. Due to the highly technical nature of its sponsors' business, ACU routinely has over one thousand Phd's of various disciplines within its membership. As a result, there is never a shortage of "suggestions" by the membership. An emphasis on innovation has always been a part of ACU's mission. It was a pioneer in the use of electronic data processing for credit unions as early as 1959, and developed programs for the then "state-of-the-art" IBM 650 and 1401 series computers as they came on line. This technological trend continues today with a full array of electronic financial services offered. Other successful innovations included self-insured credit life coverage for borrowers and the development of the first line-of-credit loans for credit union in Illinois. ACU was also among the first to offer student loans, home equity loans, and first mortgages in the state.

Argonne Credit Union continues to be a vibrant and energetic financial institution with a desire to stay on top of technological development in order to provide the up to date financial services its high-tech members deserve.

by John Chonko