Fred W. Rusteberg was known as a gentleman, a soft-spoken and persistent advocate for his banking company and community.

Rusteberg could also bring it, when need be, a steely resolve emerging when he saw an injustice or inequity that required a challenge. One of those times occurred about 20 years ago when the chancellor of the University of Texas System visited Brownsville. It was to be a festive occasion in celebrating the dedication of new education and business buildings on the campus of UT-Brownsville. 

“There was a bitterness in the air,” recalled Juliet Garcia, the president of UTB at the time. 

Garcia, Rusteberg and other community leaders were furious that the UT System was refusing to allow resources from the Permanent University Fund to reach and fund UTB and the University of Texas-Pan American. This lucrative fund has as its revenue source the royalties of West Texas oil and gas wells. The main UT campus in Austin had long benefited from these revenues, as had other UT campuses. The UT campuses in the Valley had been shut out of the fund.

“Fred chose that day in a very public arena to challenge the chancellor of the UT System,” Garcia said of the longstanding president and chief executive officer of IBC Bank-Brownsville. “He called it what it was, discrimination of the worst kind that had been allowed in perpetuity to hide behind lame excuses and legal technicalities.”

Rusteberg’s comments that day infuriated Mark Yudof, the UT chancellor, but the bank executive and community leader had made his point. It left an indelible mark. Two decades later, PUF funds are flowing into the Valley and its two UT campuses in Brownsville and Edinburg.

It is just one story of the many about Rusteberg and the legacy and imprint he left on Brownsville. He died in July 2020. In January, Garcia and other community leaders, friends and family gathered to remember and honor Rusteberg as the main IBC bank in Brownsville was named in his honor.

Deep Roots

Rusteberg was much more than a banker. He was ingrained in his community as a leader for many worthy causes, with education topping the list. 

“Fred would find the time – make the time – for the community on issues that may not happen today, but set the stage for what may happen in the future,” said Irv Downing, a banking executive colleague of Rusteberg’s era in Brownsville. 

Rusteberg’s comments about the PUF fund set the stage, a forerunner to the UT System creating unified RGV campuses under one name with the sort of funding other campuses elsewhere had seen. It’s one example of Rusteberg being “a convener,” Downing said. He was a leader with the capability and credibility to gather people together to pursue noble goals in his community. 

Rusteberg’s Brownsville roots ran deep. Born in 1946, he was the younger brother to four older sisters, growing up on a family tomato farm in Villa Nueva on the Military Highway. His father, Fred Jr., was a founding trustee of Texas Southmost College. Rusteberg’s mother, Jessie, drove the first school bus in Cameron County when she was only 16. 

Building A Bank

He went on to attend Texas A&M University and serve as an Army helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War years. Making his way back to Brownsville, Rusteberg would eventually serve as IBC’s first president in its infancy as a new banking company in the Valley market. 

“He built IBC Bank in Cameron County from the ground up, starting with a single downtown location in 1983 with more employees than customers,” said Al Villarreal, who succeeded Rusteberg as the bank’s president and CEO. 

In those early years of IBC in the Valley, there were no fancy meeting rooms, with Rusteberg convening his board around the young bank president’s desk. IBC today has $1.7 billion in assets and 12 locations in Cameron County.

“He led by example from the frontline,” said Villarreal, who grew up in the banking industry under Rusteberg’s watch. “He had the innate ability to connect with people and win them over.”

Rusteberg reflected on his career and community efforts around the time of his retirement from IBC in 2016. It encapsulated how he approached his work and helped the community.

“You can sit by and watch things happen, or you can make them happen,” he said in a video.

Fred Rusteberg did the latter – many times over – and the Rusteberg Bank Building on FM 802/Ruben Torres Blvd. is but one example of his legacy in Brownsville.