NEW YORK — Wayne Grossé, who led Bethpage Federal Credit Union (now FourLeaf FCU) during a period of significant expansion that helped make it one of the nation’s largest credit unions, died at Tisch Hospital in Manhattan. He was 67.
The cause was esophageal cancer, his son Tyler Grossé told Newsday.
Grossé became interim CEO of Bethpage in 2014, when the Long Island institution was already New York’s largest credit union with $5.7 billion in assets. He was named president and CEO in 2015 and remained in the position until retiring in 2023, Newsday reported.
By the time Grossé retired, Bethpage had grown to $12.5 billion in assets and 456,000 members. The credit union, founded in 1941 to serve 114 employees of Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp., changed its name to FourLeaf Federal Credit Union last year.
‘They Just Took Off’
“They just took off,” Anoop Rai, a finance professor at Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business, told Newsday. “They continued the growth, which is usually very difficult after you’ve grown rapidly.”
During Grossé’s tenure, Bethpage expanded through acquisitions and broadened its potential membership nationally.
In 2015, Bethpage acquired Montauk Credit Union, which had encountered financial problems related to loans to taxi medallion owners. Although Montauk was considerably smaller than Bethpage, its charter enabled Bethpage to expand membership eligibility nationwide, Newsday reported.
Bethpage expanded again in 2017 by absorbing Jericho-based Northwell Health Federal Credit Union.
In 2023, Grossé’s final year as CEO, Bethpage provided $712 million in residential mortgages and $1.7 billion in consumer loans, according to Newsday.
Career Began as Part-Time Teller
Wayne Norton Grossé was born Sept. 14, 1958, in Bay Shore, N.Y. He grew up in West Islip and graduated from SUNY Oswego with a degree in political science.
His father, Malcolm Grossé, worked in maintenance for Grumman, while his mother, Arlene Stelling Grossé, was a bus driver, Newsday reported.
Grossé entered the credit union industry in 1980 as a part-time teller at Teachers Federal Credit Union’s Oakdale branch.
“You need to have a service-minded mentality in banking and it’s clear that a teller position can be a stepping stone to other things,” Grossé told Long Island Business News in 2011.
At Teachers, Grossé met fellow teller Laura Hoek, whom he later married.
Early in his career, Grossé supplemented his credit union income by washing cars, painting houses and clamming on the Great South Bay with his uncle and grandfather, his son told Newsday. Commercial fishermen aware of his office job nicknamed him “Petey Pinstripes.”
Joined as COO
Grossé later spent nearly a decade at Island Federal Credit Union before joining Bethpage in 1999 as chief operating officer.
His involvement at Bethpage extended beyond running the institution. Grossé regularly participated in community events supported by the credit union, including the Jones Beach air show, Long Island Ducks baseball games, backpack giveaways and turkey distributions.
FourLeaf CEO Linda Armyn said Grossé remained committed throughout his career to the cooperative principles underlying credit unions.
Grossé “was a true credit union leader who deeply believed in the movement’s mission of ‘people helping people,’” Armyn said in a statement cited by Newsday. “He spoke often about the important role credit unions play in the communities and markets they serve.”
Grossé is survived by his wife of 42 years, Laura “Louie” Grossé; sons Tyler, Erich and Jonathan; four grandchildren; and a sister, Marlene Potak.
