A little more than 40 years ago this past March, Class of 1980 Christian County High School graduate and Western Kentucky University alumnus Kevin Atwood received a phone call from John Minton, and it changed his life.
Now a retired chief justice of Kentucky, he was Atwood’s fraternity advisor at Western Kentucky University. The two remain close friends to this day, and Minton had an irrefutable opportunity.
Since 2004, Atwood’s banking career has put him in the heart of Trigg County, where he first served as executive vice president before later being named president & CEO for the Bank of Cadiz Trust & Company.
That 20-year, 11-month tenure tearfully ended Friday at noon. And by Saturday afternoon, he, his wife Tracie, and his parents will be well on their way to Dallas, Texas — where his daughter, Layton, and two grandchildren have been waiting more than two years for “Grandpaw” to come home.
The past 20 years, he admitted, went by in a big-dang-hurry. Some of it good. Some of it rather difficult.
Through it all, he said this area — and, in particular, the Bank of Cadiz — made it special. Made it unbelievable.
Being a grandparent won’t be the only thing keeping him busy in Texas.
He is staying on the Bank of Cadiz Board of Directors and plans to remain as an active shareholder for an organization that can trace its origins back to 1867. He wants to turn his attention toward his new home, and he still has plenty to keep him busy with Colonels Thoroughbreds, LCC — where he raises and races horses exclusively in Kentucky and Louisiana.
But he will also miss day-to-day life in Cadiz and Hopkinsville, and his office on Main Street.
Outside of serving the South Western Kentucky and Cadiz-Trigg County Economic Development councils, Atwood is a former chairman for the United Way of the Pennyrile Board, past president and board member for the Cadiz-Trigg County Chamber of Commerce, a former commissioner for the Cadiz-Trigg County Tourism Comission, past chairman of Leadership Hopkinsville-Christian County, while at times serving the Hopkinsville Rotary Club, 4-H, the Kentucky Junior Rodeo Association and the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association.
