Friends remember Dan Marvin as a man who inspired friendship and loyalty wherever he went.

Marvin died April 21 at the age of 69.

Marvin’s funeral took place Friday at The First Presbyterian Church in Mattoon.

Marvin, who served as president of Eastern from 1977 to 1983, easily made friends with students, staff and faculty because of the way he treated everyone with respect and friendship.

After serving as president of Eastern, Marvin became president of First National Bank in 1983 before taking over the position of CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors at First Mid-Illinois Bank in 1989. He would serve in this capacity until 1999, when he stepped down but continued to serve as a member of the board of directors, until his death last week.

Throughout his life Marvin created friendships that would last a lifetime because he put an emphasis on treating colleagues and underlings with respect while seeking to be friends with everyone.

One of these friends was Bill Rowland, the current CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors at First Mid-Illinois. Rowland started working with Marvin in 1989 as his Chief Financial Officer at First Mid-Illinois.

Rowland, who worked closely with Marvin virtually everyday for ten years, said Marvin was a very easy man to get along with.

“He never knew a stranger,” Rowland said.

Rowland said Marvin always tried to make people feel comfortable around him and would easily create friendships with everyone because he was so comfortable speaking with people.

He said Marvin was able to do this because he did not change the way he spoke to people based on their social status or their position relative to his own.

Rowland said Marvin was as comfortable speaking to a student at Eastern as he was speaking with the president of the United States.

Marvin actually spoke with President Gerald Ford at a seminar he was giving at the White House when he was a research biologist. Rowland said Marvin enjoyed speaking with Ford because he was well attuned to the political system.

Rowland said Marvin’s background as a biologist gave him a unique perspective when it came to the business world.

He said Marvin succeeded in the business industry because he was able to look beyond the obvious causes of a problem to try and find the true root of the problem.

Rowland said Marvin’s philosophy on the business world was to not look at problems as problems, but to see them as opportunities.

“In business you will encounter problems,” Rowland said. “But [Dan] saw problems as nothing opportunities in work clothes.”

Rowland said this was just one of many different lessons he learned from Marvin. He said Marvin was one of the most intelligent people he ever knew.

Rowland said he and Marvin knew each other for so long and had experienced so many different things together that it would be impossible him to pick just one story from that time to do their friendship justice.

Rowland said he and the community will miss Marvin greatly.

Marvin’s family members could not be reached for comment on this story.

Jordan Crook can be reached at 581-7492 or at jscrook@eiu.edu.