When Kerry O’Connor is not out fishing for speckled trout in the delta or swinging a golf club, you may find him staring intently at his computer screen.

O’Connor is president of Whitney Bank in Baldwin County.

He said he’s “just a local,” as he spent most of his life in Mobile, graduating from Davidson High School and the University of South Alabama.

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina his family migrated to the Eastern Shore.

O’Connor has been with Whitney Bank for 12 years and president since January 2006.

As president, he oversees approximately 25 employees and four branches in Baldwin County.

“The bank is looking for additional sites in Spanish Fort and Fairhope,” he said.

O’Connor said that the biggest challenge of his position is “to keep everyone happy.”

As Whitney Bank has a lot of customers all over the county, being bank president requires him to do a lot of traveling.

It was his father who taught him the love of fishing and hunting.

He and his wife Laura have two sons, Matthew, 11, and Kerry, 14.

Two Labrador retrievers, Buddy and Annie, also live at the O’Connor home. O’Connor also spends a majority of his time sitting on bleachers watching his sons play football, park baseball and basketball.

O’Connor’s favorite way to wind down is to fish, hunt, play golf and eat ice cream. He eases his boat into Mobile Bay, throttles the engine and goes for boat rides with his sons.

He said the delta has a lot of action and plenty of gators. The group often goes to a camp on the delta where they fish and hunt, but “not often enough,” he said. During the specified seasons, he bags doves, quail and duck.

The game of golf is also something he can share with his sons, which he took up about 10 years ago. After a hard day of banking and ferrying kids around, another way he relaxes is to enjoy Rocky Road ice cream out of a coffee cup.

He and his family had lived on Dog River until two sailboats finished the damage to his home that Hurricane Katrina started.

With a three and a half foot waterline in the house and gaping damages caused by the sailboats, “All belongings were washed out. We lost everything,” he said, “One sailboat completely took off the front porch.”

He reminisces about the charm of his former home, noting that it had heart pine and old brick. After they lost their home from the hurricane, the O’Connor family opted to move to higher ground in the Eastern Shore, he said.

Admitting that he lives in a great neighborhood with loads of kids, O’Connor said he most loves living in Baldwin County because of the people.