In 1905 a young banker from Manchester, Iowa, succeeded the founder John Paley as president of the Beloit State Bank. During the 43-year tenure of H.A. Von Oven the Beloit State Bank merged with the L.C. Hyde and Brittan Bank, Beloit’s oldest financial institution. This merger produced a combined bank which in 1931 was the largest in Rock County. Throughout his professional life Mr. Von Oven was considered a leader in banking circles. Gover-nor LaFollette appointed him as a member of the first Banking Review Board of Wisconsin. He was a member of the Federal Reconstruction Finance Corporation committee for Wisconsin and was also active as an organizer of the Beloit United Charities in 1914. He continued as a director when United Charities was reorganized as the Family Welfare Association in 1934. He served for many years on the YMCA board of directors and as president of the Beloit Foundation, a philanthropic civic organization founded in 1939.