The SW Graduate School of Banking (SWGSB) at Southern Methodist University has announced its highest honors for 2025. H. Gary Blankenship, chair, CEO and chief lending officer of Bank of the West, will be honored with the Distinguished Service Award on May 29. The following week, on June 5, Ron Butler, chair and CEO of Abilene-based First Financial Bank’s Abilene region, executive vice president and CAO of First Financial Bankshares Inc. and a SWGSB graduate, will be honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.
“We’re proud to announce these award recipients who have contributed immense time and talent to the betterment of their communities, their banking institutions, and SWGSB,” says William T. Chittenden Ph.D., president and CEO of SWGSB. “They represent the best of SWGSB, and we are honored to present them with these awards.”
Born in Lockney in 1940, Gary Blankenship began his banking career as a national bank examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stationed in Denver, Boulder and Grand Junction, Colorado. He has served as chair and CEO of Greater Southwest Bancshares Inc. and Bank of the West since chartering the bank in 1986. Bank of the West has grown to include nine locations in Texas in Flower Mound, Grapevine, Horseshoe Bay, Irving, Lewisville, Marble Falls, Ponder and Vernon. Prior to forming Bank of the West, Blankenship was president and CEO of two other local banks and served several years as an officer and director for other large Texas banking organizations.
A leader in the industry and his community, Blankenship has served on the Texas Department of Banking Commissioner’s Council, as a trustee on the Independent Bankers Association of Texas Insurance Bond Trust and as a director of National Bancshares of Texas Inc. He previously served on the board and as vice chair of Adfitech, a mortgage technology and consulting company. Blankenship is a director of The Independent Bankers Bank (TIB).
Blankenship received the prestigious Chairman’s Award from the Independent Bankers Association of Texas. In 2013, he and his wife, Cynthia, were named recipients of the prestigious D.E. Box Citizens of the Year Award for Grapevine, Texas. He was named one of the “Top 500 Most Powerful Business Leaders in Dallas/Fort Worth” by D Magazine in 2016 and 2017. Blankenship was inducted into the Texas Bankers Hall of Fame at Sam Houston State University in 2018.
Blankenship is a member of the boards of directors of the Irving Chamber of Commerce, Irving Symphony and Dallas Summer Musicals.
Blankenship graduated from West Texas State University, now known as West Texas A&M University, with a bachelor’s degree in finance and accounting and received an MBA from the University of Dallas. He has completed other courses in commercial lending and bank accounting, as well as one year of law school.
Ron Butler has been with First Financial Bank—a $14 billion bank with 79 branches located throughout Texas—for 31 years and previously served as CEO of First Financial Bank in Eastland and Stephenville.
Butler has been active in the community, serving on numerous boards, and is the former board chair of the Abilene Industrial Foundation and Abilene Chamber of Commerce. He also serves on the advisory council of the Excellence in Banking program at the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He also served a six-year term on the Brazos River Authority board of directors, appointed by Governor Rick Perry.
Butler has served numerous terms as a director of the Texas Bankers Association and is currently serving as its vice chair. He was inducted into the Texas Bankers Hall of Fame in 2023. He holds a BBA degree from Texas Tech University and an MBA degree from Tarleton State University. He is a graduate of SWGSB Class XXXVII. Butler was named a distinguished alumnus by Texas Tech University in 2024.
