Thomas Hoy, the longtime former CEO of Arrow Financial Corp. and its Glens Falls National Bank subsidiary, died Sunday at the age of 74.
“We at the Arrow Family of Companies are deeply saddened by the passing of Thomas L. Hoy, our former president, CEO and chairman,” the bank said in a statement, released Tuesday. “In his nearly five-decade career at the Arrow Family of Companies, Tom expanded our footprint and set forth a strategic vision that we continue to build upon. His commitment and belief in community banking were unwavering.”
David DeMarco, the bank’s current CEO, said Hoy, who DeMarco had worked with since 1987, was a role model.
“I can’t think of a better example of a leader,” DeMarco said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. “His picture would be in the dictionary next to the word ‘integrity.’”
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Hoy, who had the stature of a linebacker, was well known for his commanding presence yet gentle and intuitive nature.
“Tom’s legacy lives on in the caring company culture he helped shape. Our team and board are grateful to have known Tom as a leader and a friend. He will be greatly missed, but not forgotten,” the bank’s statement read.
Hoy not only led one of the region’s largest employers, he served on more than a dozen community boards, including chairman of the board of the Glens Falls Hospital Foundation, chairman of the board of The Hyde Collection, president of the Board of the Adirondack Community College (SUNY Adirondack) Foundation, and chairman of the Glens Falls Family YMCA board, among many others.
He served on the boards of many local economic development boards and on boards of regional organizations including Mountain Lake PBS in Plattsburgh and AAA Northway.
Hoy was president of Partners for Progress, the organization that bought and redeveloped the former Woolworth’s 5 & 10 building on Glen Street in downtown Glens Falls and renovated it into the Charles R. Wood Theater in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
“There’s probably not an organization that he was not involved in,” DeMarco said. “A lot of the community involvement happens at 7 in the morning or 7 in the evening, or on the weekends, yet he still found time for his family.”
DeMarco said that Hoy recognized the interrelation between the health of the bank and the health of the community.
“The lesson is the importance of giving back to the community, because a community bank is only as strong as its community,” DeMarco said. “That may sound a little cliché, but that’s the reality.”
Hoy and his wife, Sally, have been generous in their personal philanthropy, and are past recipients of the Henry Crandall Award from Crandall Public Library, recognizing community leadership and philanthropy.
In 2005, the Adirondack Regional Chamber of Commerce presented Hoy with its J. Walter Juckett Award for community service.
He was a past recipient of the Mohican Council Boy Scout Good Scout Award, recognizing leadership and dedication.
Hoy is a native of Bovina Center in Delaware County.
He graduated from high school there and went on to Cornell University, where he was part of the ROTC program.
He graduated from Cornell in 1970 and joined the U.S. Navy as an officer, serving four years of active duty and 16 years in the U.S. Naval Reserve, achieving the rank of commander.
Hoy joined Glens Falls National Bank as a management trainee in 1974. He became president of the Company in 1996 and CEO a year later.
He was president of Arrow Financial Corp., the bank’s parent company, from 1996 to 2012.
In retirement, he continued his service on the boards of Glens Falls National and Arrow Financial.
He was Arrow Board Chair from 2004 to 2023, retiring just several weeks ago.