Hancock Whitney Rededicates Corporate Park to Honor Late CEO Schloegel

Ceremony, after-hours celebration kicks off bank's 125^th anniversary month

One of Mississippi's largest corporately owned downtown green spaces now bears the name of one of the state's most distinguished bankers and community leaders.

On Thursday, October 3, Hancock Whitney - one of America's strongest, safest banks - rededicated the 56,000-square-foot park adjacent to the company's downtown Gulfport headquarters as the George A. Schloegel Lighthouse Memorial Park in memory of the late George A. Schloegel, former bank chairman, president, and chief executive officer.

The park dedication also kicked off the company's October commemoration of the 125^th anniversary of the bank's 1899 charter. The Hancock Whitney 125^th anniversary Mississippi Coast Chamber After-5 celebration followed the ceremony.

During the dedication, bank leaders unveiled a brick and bronze monument honoring Schloegel's legacy as a banking industry leader and as a tireless champion for opportunity across Mississippi and the greater Gulf South.

"It's really very appropriate that the new monument honoring George's life of servant leadership faces the corporate headquarters of the company and the building he helped build. It's very fitting, too, that the monument faces east, where the sun rises to introduce each new day. George seized the opportunity of every day to make a difference for our company, his community, and the people around him," said Hancock Whitney President and CEO John M. Hairston during the dedication. "With great honor and remembrance, we officially rename this park the George A. Schloegel Lighthouse Memorial Park."

Schloegel began his career with the bank in 1956 as a 16-year-old mail runner earning $1 an hour to help his widowed mother make ends meet. During a stellar career covering the next five decades, he managed almost every area of the bank, eventually assuming the bank's highest executive roles.

"We loved George and miss him, but we know he's still here with us. May this park always remind us of all the good he did and lessons he gave us during his time here," added Hairston.

After he retired from the bank, Schloegel, a native and lifetime resident of Gulfport, served as mayor of his hometown from 2009-2013.

Schloegel passed away unexpectedly but peacefully on October 6, 2023.

More About the Park

In the late 1970s, Schloegel had been integral to the design and construction of Hancock Bank's corporate headquarters building (then called One Hancock Plaza), which the bank dedicated in 1981, and the connected park, then named Harbor Square Park.

The original park included an abstract-design wading pool surrounded by walkways with wisteria-covered arbors. The pool transitioned into an irregular line of tiles running through the building's first-floor lobby. Together, the pool and those tiles depicted the Mississippi coastline.

Following Hurricane Katrina, Schloegel spearheaded restoration of the heavily damaged One Hancock Plaza and a new park design. The fully refurbished, updated building reopened one year after Katrina.

In 2007, the bank rededicated the park, this time as Lighthouse Park, in deference to the Ship Island Lighthouse incorporated into Hancock Bank's logo in the early 20th century and to the 1999 bank and community partnership Schloegel helped lead to rebuild the Ship Island Lighthouse in conjunction with the bank's 100th anniversary.

Park Symbolism

The George A. Schloegel Lighthouse Memorial Park includes extensive symbolism related to Hurricane Katrina and the resilient spirit of the Gulf Coast region and its people:

• Survivor Oaks. Bank associates saved and nurtured live oaks on the west end of the park, "survivor oaks" that endured Hurricane Katrina's wrath and reflect the resilience of South Mississippi's people. The free-form masonry curve near the oaks denotes the Mississippi coastline.
• Barrier Boulders. Boulders scattered among the oaks signify barrier islands in the Mississippi Sound that helped spare the region from greater destruction and still protect Coastal Mississippi today.
• Rising Waters. The focal point of the park, a custom-designed fountain, features Hancock Whitney's five core values: Honor & Integrity, Strength & Stability, Commitment to Service, Teamwork, and Personal Responsibility - timeless ideals central to the company and the character of Coastal Mississippi's people. The fountain's sprays allude to storm waters that inundated the area and, more important, celebrate the region's remarkable rise and recovery from seemingly insurmountable post-storm challenges.
• In Memoriam Pavers. Black pavers placed throughout the park's gray stone walkways honor each Mississippian lost in the storm.

At the dedication, bank leaders added that the park reflects Schloegel's commitment to the bank, creating a sprawling central area where local people could gather to celebrate and enjoy the culture and community of the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

125 Years of Strength, Stability, and Service

Hancock County Bank in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, and Whitney Bank in New Orleans were both founded in the late 19^th century during October. Connected by geography, economy, and leadership, the banks would engage in an early 1900s business deal that would further cement their longstanding relationship and set coordinates for a historic intersection a century later.

In 1904, Hancock County Bank founder and first president Peter Hellwege had established the Bank of Orleans, an institution with interests primarily in commodities. Hellwege and his Hancock County Bank successor, Eugene Roberts, each served simultaneously as presidents of both banks.

After World War I, the commodities market waned, and the Bank of Orleans soon faced financial challenges. Rather than risk the stability of Hancock County Bank and undermine its founding pledge to stay strong for clients, Roberts and the Hancock board chose to sell the Bank of Orleans to New Orleans peer Whitney National Bank on May 25, 1918. Roberts resigned as president of both banks and served as Whitney vice president for the rest of his career.

Just over a decade later, the catastrophic stock market crash of 1929 brought the success and excess of the 1920s to a roaring halt, causing countless other banks to close. Hancock and Whitney, however, stayed open. As America fell into an economic abyss, leaders at both banks initiated a lasting pact to protect each institution from ever facing the disastrous consequences so many other banks suffered during the Great Depression.

In 2011, Hancock and Whitney came together as one strong company, completing a courtship begun more than a century earlier and essentially doubling the size of the bank and service footprint.

Seven years later, after a series of regulatory transactions, the company established one state-chartered bank, renaming the original Hancock County Bank 1899 charter as Hancock Whitney Bank and debuting an all-inclusive "Hancock Whitney" brand 100 years to the day of that first official transaction between the two banks, the sale of the Bank of Orleans.

Today, Hancock Whitney has approximately $35 billion in assets and serves communities across the five contiguous Gulf Coast states. BauerFinancial, Inc., consistently rates Hancock Whitney among the top 25% of the nation's most financially sound banks, now for 140 consecutive quarters.

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