Past, Present and Future at Great Plains Federal Credit Union

Great Plains Federal Credit Union was formed in June 1950 at its former home office location outside Pittsburg, Kansas at the Jayhawk Plant. The original charter was under the name Spencer Chemical Employees Federal Credit Union and served employees of Spencer Chemical Company of Kansas City, Missouri.

Our credit union changed its name to Gulf Chemical Employees Federal Credit Union in February of 1966 after Spencer Chemical Company was purchased by Gulf Oil Corporation of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. With our new sponsor, the credit union grew and expanded operations. With growth came many new and improved services which helped to increase our membership size to over 13,000 members. We also became the largest credit union in the state of Kansas, which is an honor we held for many years.

In September of 1983, our sponsor was purchased by Chevron Corporation of San Francisco, California. Changes came after the purchase and numerous assets of Gulf Oil were sold or closed. We found the credit union needed to make changes to keep up with the future, some of these changes included expanding our field of membership from one sponsor to several sponsor groups and increasing family membership.

On October 17, 1985, the Gulf Chemical Employees Federal Credit Union acquired the majority of the assets of Tip Top Credit Union of Hillsboro, Kansas. The acquisition was good for both credit unions. Our name was changed in December of 1985 to Great Plains Federal Credit Union since we no longer served just one employee group. The credit union acquired Bell Telephone Employees Credit Union in Salina, Kansas in 1989, which gave us two branches in Salina. In August 1993, Great Plains was able to acquire the assets of Montezuma Credit Union in Montezuma, Kansas. This expanded our field of membership to the western half of Kansas. Great Plains Federal Credit Union moved its headquarters to Joplin, Missouri in December of 1996. In June of 2007, the credit union acquired Communities United Credit Union in Wichita, Kansas.

The credit union's history has been one of positive growth and one in which the credit union philosophy of "not for profit, not for charity, but for service" is alive and well. Welcome to one of the largest credit unions in the nation.