Allan Towle | Topeka Business Hall of Fame
Only 4% of Boy Scouts ultimately achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest honor in the organization. Eagle Scouts like Allan Towle, one of this year’s Junior Achievement of Kansas Topeka Business Hall of Fame laureates, take a special pledge to lead by example.
But Allan says his life is guided most by the oath he first took as a young Scout: On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
For Allan, duty to God — accomplished through love of others — encompasses everything else. When he took the Eagle Scout oath in September 1978, he knew it was for life. Scouting runs in his family. Not only is his son, Patrick, a fellow Eagle Scout, but Allan also met his wife Chris through Scouting.
“I became an Eagle Scout because [my troop leader] Joe Trowbridge gave me a push at the right time in my life,” Allan said. “That is what I have spent my life trying to do — give people the push they need to move forward and find their path to success.”
Allan was born and raised in Topeka, where he attended Loman Hill Elementary School, Holy Name Catholic School, Most Pure Heart of Mary Catholic School, Hayden High Catholic School and Washburn University. With four brothers and a sister, he grew up in a traditional family structure where his mother stayed home to run the household while his father built a career in bank insurance.
Like most young people of his generation, Allan started working part-time jobs at an early age. He spent the majority of his high school and college years working in the grocery business, stocking shelves, sacking groceries and serving as produce manager to help pay his way.
“I actually started my career in collections,” Allan said. “I took over collecting the money from people on my brother’s paper route because he didn’t like that part of the job.”
After graduating from Washburn with degrees in accounting and finance, Allan knew one thing: He didn’t want to be a CPA. He applied for a job as an examiner with the state banking department in Chanute, Kansas.
“I graduated in May, got married June 22 and started work in Chanute on July 1. It was a bit of a whirlwind summer,” Allan said.
Working as a bank examiner, where his role was to look at a bank and figure out what wasn’t working, gave him a unique perspective on the industry. As a result, he learned to appreciate the things banks did right to create a more effective business model.
Three years later, Allan moved back to Topeka to continue working as an examiner but soon found himself tasked with supervising operations in Kansas City. Moving into a bigger banking market shifted his focus onto much larger banks with more substantial transactions.
“I was a little intimidated by the numbers at first,” Allan said. “But I soon realized that the size of the loan doesn’t matter. It is
the analysis piece that matters. It all comes down to making sure a borrower can repay the loan.”
After spending seven years as an examiner, Allan was confident in his job performance and comfortable with his responsibilities. But a different path was calling him.
“I was too young to be comfortable,” he said. “You find growth in being uncomfortable.”
Allan decided to shift into the consumer lending side of the banking business, taking a job as a loan officer with a bank in Olathe. Another push came through his father, who urged Allan to call Andy Chandler about a potential senior consumer lender position at Fidelity State Bank and Trust in Topeka. Allan had already scheduled two weeks off for a home remodel, so he called to set up an interview.
“Fortunately for me, Mr. Chandler was really big into Boy Scouts. That was my talking point to break the ice in the interview,” Allan said. “I called my wife after the interview, and her response was simply, ‘We aren’t going to go pick out carpet, are we?’”
In a matter of weeks, Allan scrambled to get the house in Olathe ready to go on the market, sold it, bought a new house and moved in with his wife and four young children. He started his new job at Fidelity State Bank & Trust in Topeka on Aug. 5, 1996.
“We were ecstatic to be coming home,” Allan said.
In his role as a senior consumer lender, Allan helped Fidelity grow its home equity and auto loan customer base by incorporating a philosophy that loans serve the purpose of helping people move forward.
“You can’t help people if you don’t understand where they are in life,” he said. “Sometimes helping people means saying ‘no’ to a loan request because it wouldn’t be in the customer’s best interest.”
Putting customers’ interests first earned Allan a reputation for being compassionate but fair. His desire to always do the right thing earned him a promotion to executive vice president in 1999, with Andy eventually naming Allan president of Fidelity Bank in 2008 and CEO in 2014.
“Over the years, I have learned that things aren’t going to always go right,” Allan said. “What really matters is what you do when things go wrong.”
When Andy retired on May 1, 2018, Allan knew a change of ownership was inevitable. He worked to ensure his employees would be set up for success, no matter what the new ownership looked like.
Those efforts paid off. When the bank officially merged with Heritage Bank on Aug. 15, 2025, the existing employees were asked to stay, including Allan. After helping guide the merger, Allan retired from banking on Feb. 28, 2026, to pursue the next adventure God has for him.
“I have had such an amazing career,” he said. “But I can’t take any of the credit. God gave me the ability to love and care about people. I just took that ability and used it to help improve people’s lives.”
Allan’s work ethic and leadership philosophy stem from his experiences at home and in the community. Raising five boys and a girl has often meant operating in an environment of controlled chaos.
“Chris is amazing. We had six kids, but most of the time she was actually taking care of seven
because I have an 8-year-old living inside of me,” Allan said.
Allan spoke of the day after his fifth son was born. While his wife was in the hospital recovering from the birth, Allan was back at home hosting a sleepover with 10 boys to celebrate their twins’ birthdays.
“Family was always the most important thing in my life,” he said. “It still is.”
Following that same calling to guide young people, Allan became a dedicated volunteer. He has served as a Scout leader and sat on numerous boards, including Family Service and Guidance Center, Valeo Behavioral Health and United Way. He also volunteers at several youth organizations and plays a pivotal role in youth programs at his church.
“God has given me this passion to love my neighbor. That makes volunteering easy,” Allan said. “Anyplace I volunteer, I look at what value I can add.”
He has also spent 15 years going on mission trips with high school students as part of Prayer in Action and Catholic Heart Workcamp, two Catholic programs that help young people find value in local community service and guide them in their faith life.
During these mission trips, participants spend five days doing yard cleanup, painting, gutter cleaning and helping with other tasks that community members may need. In the evenings, they eat dinner together, sharing their experiences and discovering their “God moments.”
“The work is the tool. The program is recognizing how the tool can help others. Loving your neighbor is how you love God,” he said.
Allan is not quiet about his faith. He attributes every achievement in his life and career to simply following where God leads. He encourages others to have faith that things will work out even if the journey involves risk.
“Recognize that by the grace of God you can do hard things,” Allan said. “Opportunity lies outside of your comfort zone. If you are uncomfortable, you will pay greater attention and work a little harder.”
Allan is honored to be recognized by the Junior Achievement of Kansas Topeka Business Hall of Fame, though he’s quick to deflect credit. In keeping with the faith that has guided his life and career, he thanks God for the opportunity to serve others through his work.
