John Slusher graduated in 1976 from Carson-Newman with a BS in Business Management. Pledging Philos in the Fall of 1972, he was active all four years serving as President in the Fall of 1975 and named Mr. Philo in 1976. Following graduation, he married Vivian Galyon in 1977. Vivian had been named Philo Sweetheart earlier that year. Living in Maryville while Vivian finished her CNC degree, John worked as a District Executive for the Great Smoky Mountain Council.
In 1981, John began what was to become a 34-year career with the CUNA Mutual Group—the leading provider of insurance and financial products to credit unions and their members. Over the years, he worked directly with hundreds of credit unions in Virginia/Maryland/DC and in North Carolina and spoke at numerous National, State and local credit union trade association meetings. Retiring early at the end of 2015 in the position of Vice President—National Accounts and working with the largest credit unions in the US such as Navy Federal and Pentagon Federal.
John was named 12 times to CUNA Mutual’s President’s Council for their annual top revenue producers and also was assigned in 2005 as CMG Liaison to the Defense Credit Union Council—a trade association for credit unions who are serving any branch of the US Armed Forces—where he provided presentations at many of their Stateside Annual Conferences held in cities all over the US as well as at 10 of their Overseas Annual Conference held in various European cities/countries. Vivian enjoyed traveling and attending all of these events with John.
Following his retirement, the Metropolitan Credit Union Managers Association named him as the first non-credit union staff professional recipient of their MACUMA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. The Virginia Credit Union League also recognized his service with a presentation at their 2016 League Convention.
John and Vivian raised two children—Kelli, who is the Administrator in a Alzheimers facility in Evansville, Indiana and a married mother of two and Derek, who is a Master Firefighter Technician in Fairfax, VA and married with three children.