Wayne Grossé, who led growth of Bethpage Federal Credit Union as CEO and president, dies at 67

Wayne Grossé, who led Bethpage Federal Credit Union as it grew into a major financial institution with national reach and more than $10 billion in assets, died Aug. 5 at Tisch Hospital in Manhattan. He was 67.

The cause was esophageal cancer, his son Tyler said.

Bethpage, which changed its name to FourLeaf last year, was already New York State’s biggest credit union when Grossé took over as interim CEO in 2014, with $5.7 billion in assets. He was named president and CEO in 2015. That year, Bethpage took over Montauk Credit Union, which had run into trouble providing loans to taxi medallion owners. Montauk was small compared with Bethpage, but its charter allowed Bethpage to offer membership to "literally every man, woman and child in the U.S.," the trade publication American Banker later reported. Bethpage expanded again in 2017, when it absorbed Jericho-based Northwell Health Federal Credit Union.

When Grossé retired in 2023, Bethpage, which started in 1941 as a credit union for 114 Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corp. employees, had 456,000 members and $12.5 billion in assets, making it one of the largest credit unions in the country.  In 2023, it provided $712 million in residential mortgages and $1.7 billion in consumer loans.

"They just took off," said Anoop Rai, professor of finance at the Frank G. Zarb School of Business at Hofstra University, summing up Bethpage’s performance under Grossé’s tenure. "They continued the growth, which is usually very difficult after you’ve grown rapidly."

Wayne Norton Grossé was born in Bay Shore on Sept. 14, 1958. His father, Malcolm Grossé, worked in maintenance for Grumman; his mother, the former Arlene Stelling, was a bus driver.

Grossé grew up in West Islip, graduated high school there in the  mid-1970s and then from SUNY Oswego with a degree in political science.

In 2011, Long Island Business News called Grossé "another young person who wasn’t clear on his future goals" when he took a job out of college as a part-time teller at the Oakdale branch of Farmingville-based Teachers Federal Credit Union in 1980.

It was a world away from Wall Street, which seemed to suit Grossé fine.

"You need to have a service-minded mentality in banking and it’s clear that a teller position can be a stepping stone to other things," Grosse told the publication. "A trusted and hard-working teller can move up in their organization very quickly."

Grossé used the word "banking" reluctantly, he told the Credit Union Journal in 2002.

" 'Bank' has always been a four-letter word to me," Grossé said. "But there is no verb to describe credit unioning." (Although credit unions meet similar needs as commercial banks, there are important differences. For starters, credit unions are not-for-profit organizations with members instead of customers.) 

At Teachers, Grossé met Laura Hoek, a fellow teller whom he married in the mid-1980s.

Early in his career, he washed cars, painted houses and clammed on the Great South Bay with his uncle and grandfather to supplement his pay. Commercial fishermen who knew about Grossé’s office job called him "Petey Pinstripes," Tyler Grossé said.

Grossé worked at Island Federal Credit Union for nearly a decade before joining Bethpage in 1999 as chief operating officer.

The job brought responsibilities beyond the strictly fiduciary. For decades, Grossé spent Memorial Day weekend at the Jones Beach air show and attended baseball games at the Long Island Ducks’ home stadium; the credit union sponsored both. (FourLeaf still sponsors the air show.)

There were also backpack giveaways, turkey distributions and at least one "Dancing With the Stars"-themed gala.

In a statement, Linda Armyn, FourLeaf’s CEO, wrote that Grossé "was a true credit union leader who deeply believed in the movement’s mission of ‘people helping people.’ He spoke often about the important role credit unions play in the communities and markets they serve."

Grossé is survived by his wife of 42 years, Laura "Louie" Grossé, of Bayport; their three sons, Tyler, of Stanford, California; Erich, of Bayport; and Jonathan, of Broomall, Pennsylvania; grandchildren Samantha, Abigail, Kaleigh and Grace, of Broomall; and a sister, Marlene Potak, of West Islip.

Visitation was held Sunday  at Raynor & D'Andrea Funeral Home in West Sayville. A service was Monday at Church of St. Lawrence the Martyr in Sayville, followed by burial in St. Lawrence the Martyr Parish Cemetery.

By Nicholas Spangler

nicholas.spangler@newsday.comspanglernewsday

Nicholas Spangler is a general assignment reporter and has worked at Newsday since 2010.