George Graboys

Graboys, a native of Fall River, Massachusetts, had a degree from Dartmouth College and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and followed his father into the banking world in 1969. Lewis M. Graboys was president of Washington Finance Corp., a loan and investment company whose assets Citizens Trust Co. acquired that August. George Graboys started as vice president at Citizens, in charge of creating an asset-based lending department, became president in 1975 and corporation chairman in 1984. Under his leadership, Citizens was converted in 1985 from a mutual savings bank to a stockholder-owned company. In 1986, he negotiated the sale of Citizens to Royal Bank of Scotland Group for $440 million. Graboys had helped steer the bank from an $800,000 lender to a more than $4-billion financial institution by the time he retired as chairman and chief executive officer in 1992. Graboys was chairman of the Rhode Island Foundation and its acting CEO for a year and a half. He was a founding member, chairman and director of the Children’s Crusade for Higher Education, a nonprofit program started in 1990 to help children stay in school and out of trouble, with the guarantee of a college education. After retiring from Citizens he became an adjunct professor and executive-in-residence at the University of Rhode Island’s School of Business. Graboys is survived by his wife, Lois, to whom he was married for 60 years. Graboys is also survived by sons Ken and Jim Graboys, a daughter, Angela Graboys Rudner, and five grandchildren.