Larry Wolfe
A true North Dakotan, Terry Zeltinger was born in Minot and grew up in the small town of Tolley (population 50!) in the northwestern portion of the state near the Canadian border. Terry’s graduating class totaled nine, so he was involved in everything the school had to offer, including baseball and basketball. He then attended Minot State University for two years and played on the Beavers’ baseball team. He transferred to the University of North Dakota where he earned a BS in Business Administration. Interestingly, he fought forest fires with the U.S. Forest Service in Idaho during the summers to earn tuition money.
Terry met his wife-to-be Ann at UND during his last semester there. They married a year later. They grew up less than 20 miles apart, but didn’t meet until Terry’s senior year in college! They’ve now been married “47 years and counting”! Terry says he “outkicked his coverage when he married her!” The Zeltingers have three children (Erin, Ben, and Ty) and now have eight grandkids. All three families live back in North Dakota. It’s fairly easy to visit them all given that there are direct flights from Mesa Gateway via Allegiant Airlines to Minot, Bismarck, and Grand Forks where the three families live.
After graduating from UND, Terry spent eight years as a bank examiner for the FDIC in Sioux Falls, SD, before moving into officer positions with several independent banks in North Dakota. He was President and CEO of three of those banks. In 1994, Terry co-founded two banks with two partners with locations in Burlington and Minot. They previously owned banks in Leeds and Drake. This group of independent banks was named United Community Bank. Fortuitously, the banks were located adjacent to the Bakken oilfield boom which occurred four years later. This enabled the banks to experience tremendous growth in loans and deposits. Terry was CEO of those banks until selling them in 2015 and retiring in Sun Lakes.
Ann and Terry love to travel, especially internationally. In the past five years alone, they’ve visited Svalbard (near the North Pole), Cuba, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Russia. Ann’s interest in genealogy has led them to research and then visit their ancestral roots in Norway, Germany, and Ireland. (Ann has even published a book about her great-grandparents from Norway.) Next year’s itinerary includes the Ukraine, Romania, and Switzerland. The adventures continue!
The Zeltingers are big hockey and Canadian football fans. Their teams are the UND Fighting Hawks and Arizona Coyotes in hockey and the Saskatchewan Roughriders in football. Terry has attended five Grey Cups (the CFL’s Super Bowl equivalent) over the years. All three of their grandsons are hockey players, too, so that adds to their favorite teams.
In 2006, Terry donated a kidney to his brother Kent. That kidney “wore out” five years ago and his sister Kae then donated her kidney. Talk about a close family!
Geez, I haven’t mentioned softball yet! After not playing for 40 years, Terry joined our league three years ago and is really enjoying the game and the camaraderie. His favorite part: TRAVELING around the bases!