Sometimes it’s easy to forget that banks are just as much an integral part of the business community as a long-standing eatery.
Orange Federal Savings and Loan started serving the Orange County community in 1918 under the name Orange Savings and Loan. They were in the service of helping the community through mortgages and personal loans. Eddie Mann joined Orange Federal Savings and Loan in 1964, and became president of the bank in 1980.
“My company was the market-share leader in helping local citizens obtain a place to live,” Mann said in an email.
But it wasn’t just excellence in business that made Mann worthy of an award. According to the selection criteria set by the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, business leaders must have made a substantial, positive and lasting impact on the community.
“This award celebrates local business leaders that have made a substantial, positive and lasting difference where we live, raise families and do business,” said Aaron Martin Nelson, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, in a statement.
Bob Woodruff, Hall of Fame selection committee chairperson, said selecting only a few businesses each year is hard because many people have made lasting impacts on the community through business.
“It takes several meetings to narrow nominations down to those whom the committee feels are most deserving,” he said in an email. “The goal of the committee was to select 10 people (in 2013) and five each year thereafter, but we have not been able to get down to that number because we have so many outstanding people in our business community.”
Mann started Community Affordable Housing Equity Corporation, or CAHEC, in 1992. CAHEC finances affordable rental housing in North Carolina. Since 1992, it has expanded to 11 other states along the East Coast, as well as Washington, D.C.
