Abe Tubbs ’94: The values of teamwork

Abe Tubbs ’94’s basketball career at Cornell earned him a place in the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. He was twice named first team All-Midwest Conference and twice honored as conference co-most valuable player. A 6-foot-8-inch intimidator, he blocked 28 opponents’ shots his senior year while averaging 22 points and seven rebounds a game.

Today Tubbs is co-president (with his brother, Brig) of Ohnward Bancshares, a holding company founded by his grandfather and a partner in 1967. Tubbs also serves as CEO, president, or director of the company’s various banking groups, composed of 18 offices in 14 eastern Iowa towns. He has been a senior officer of Ohnward since 1998. 

Learning the value of teamwork, Tubbs said, was the most important benefit he gained from sports.

“A team-based experience is something I always look for in job candidates,” he said. “There is something irreplaceable about working hard with others toward a common goal.” Properly cultivated, he added, teamwork fosters deep and meaningful relationships, and that was the greatest legacy of his Cornell coach, Gary Grace.

Because Ohnward operates mostly in small towns, personal relationships are critical to the success of its banks and companion services, which include investment management, insurance, real estate, and farm management. “Our mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of everyone we touch,” Tubbs said.

Tubbs majored in economics and business, graduated with honors, and earned an MBA from the University of Iowa. He credits Cornell’s block plan for developing discipline and focus, skills demanded by his multiple responsibilities. Although he lives in Anamosa, the day’s work might take him to any of six counties.

“I move around a lot. I have multiple offices. I try to be where I’m needed and be out of the way where I’m not. We have very talented people who don’t need me making daily decisions,” he said. Ohnward has 260 employees and banking assets exceeding $1.5 billion.

Tubbs served six years on the board of directors of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, one of 12 such districts that regulate banks and provide research to help guide monetary policy. The directorship is an honor—only three of nine directors are bankers—and also a duty. Tubbs regularly interviewed community leaders about economic trends and reported his findings so that the views of Iowans could be heard in Washington.

Tubbs has strong connections to Cornell. A gift from Tubbs and his wife, Nicole Claussen, resulted in a fitness area of the Small Athletic and Wellness Center being named in their honor. Tubbs has remained close to Coach Grace and to Brent Brase ’90, current head women’s basketball coach, who was a young assistant when the two met. Brase played a key introductory role as Tubbs’s eldest child, Ava Claussen-Tubbs ’26, considered transferring to Cornell from Arizona State, where she felt dissatisfied with her experience in a student body of thousands. She opted for the Hilltop, telling her father, “Everyone here is so nice!”

Dan Kellams ’58 is a member of the Cornell College Alumni Association Board of Directors. His career spanned nearly 50 years in public relations in New York City, where he worked as a corporate and agency executive and, later, as a freelance writer and editor. He has written two books set in his hometown of Marion, Iowa.