Political Quotes

“on another sad note and before I move to the substance of the day, I want to spend a moment in recognizing a dear friend of mine who passed away this weekend, Bob Wilmers, one of the most respected and prominent benefactors in Buffalo, NY--one of the great cities in my State and in our country. Very few men had done as much for Buffalo since its founding hundreds of years ago as Bob Wilmers had done for the last several decades. He was the chairman of M&T Bank. He helped the bank grow from a small bank into one of the largest employers in the region--6,500 employees. As he built the business and created thousands of good-paying, middle-class jobs, he helped Upstate New York dramatically. M&T Bank was a large bank, but it was not one of these banks that engaged in swaps overseas or other risky types of investments. It lent money to small businesses, and it had a deep caring for the communities which it served. It was a model bank, in my opinion. It did an amazing job in helping to revitalize our upstate economy, which has had trouble over the last several decades due to so many different things, including bad trade policies. Bob was also not just committed to the bank, which he loved, as he loved the employees, cared about them, and was such an honorable employee; he was also committed to Buffalo and philanthropy. He directed almost $5 million to local nonprofit organizations in New York--the bank did under his leadership.…”