Ex-Glenfed President Got Golden Handshake

Keith P. Russell Jr., who resigned as Glenfed Inc.’s president last June--just before the big thrift holding company posted a $232-million fiscal 1991 loss--received $994,276 in severance pay under terms of his employment contract.

The severance pay was disclosed in the proxy statement for Glenfed’s annual meeting today in Universal City. The proxy also showed that Glenfed Chairman Norman M. Coulson asked for and received a 10% cut in his base salary, to $568,182, for the fiscal year that began July 1.

Glenfed, with assets of $21.3 billion as of Sept. 30, is the parent of Glendale Federal Bank, the nation’s fourth-largest thrift. Glenfed’s huge loss in its fiscal year ended June 30, compared with a profit of $100.5 million the previous year, reflected an increase in Glenfed’s problem loans and costs related to the company’s restructuring efforts.

Last week, Glenfed reported a $17.1-million profit for its fiscal first quarter ended Sept. 30, but that was down 5% from its $18-million profit in the year-earlier quarter.

Glenfed, which diversified into a variety of financial services in the 1980s, now wants to focus on its core business of making home mortgage loans. Russell had been hired in 1983 to help Glenfed diversify, but his role diminished once the company decided to scale back.

Russell has since been named an executive vice president at Mellon Bank in Pittsburgh.