The former head of Bank of N.T. Butterfield and Sons Ltd., Calum Johnston, has had problems easing himself into retirement. He first retired when he was 62, and now at the age of 67, he has retired for a second time...but just from banking and is now moving into a different career in the Caribbean.

The Scottish-born banker told The Royal Gazette, in the final part of a three part series, that he will miss the bank more than he can say.

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"It's my baby," said Mr. Johnston. "I'll miss coming to the bank. It's always hard to move on. I will miss the people I work with. They won't miss me, I don't think..."

But Mr. Johnston's thumbprint will remain on the bank undoubtedly for some time after the monumental clean out of staff and business done during his four year tenure which led to 14 consecutive quarters of record profits. When asked what his favourite moment was in the bank, he said: "Oh, there were so many… every quarter. I love to publish these results."

And he said that this joy is added to by rubbing the nose of one particular analyst who slated the bank a few years ago, suggesting that Mr. Johnston had cooked the books to produce such good results.

He explained: "We had an analyst that came and published something some years ago and totally misunderstood and misrepresented us.

"And his analysis was totally wrong. So we invited him for lunch to say I'll take you through the numbers and so on. Well, he was so rude and attacked me at the lunch table, that the numbers were false and couldn't be sustained and this that and the other. I found this incredible. And I think of him every quarter when I publish, and I think that is the nicest thing. He's a bit of a silly ass actually.

"Even if he thought he was right, what he was saying was incredibly rude, to suggest I was cooking the books or something was unbelievable."

When asked if he will ever retire, Mr. Johnston said he would like to take things easier now but he has taken on a huge task with the new company in the Caribbean.

He said: "I'd like to think I will wind down, but I always want to be doing things rather than sitting around.

"There are lots of books I want to read, I must have 100 books to read when I retire and try and catch up on.

"I want to do more painting, I paint a little bit, very badly, in oils, but I need to be able to do it in time, not just an hour, I need to spend a morning.

"I've never done that, I've always done little bits at a time.

"And I want a place… I'm building a house in St. Martin, so I want a place I can leave everything out.

"You spend more time tidying up than you do painting."

Mr. Johnston will keep his apartment in Bermuda when he leaves and anticipates coming back to the Island with his four grandchildren and two children in tow.

There is no doubt he will miss the Island he has called home for the past four years.

He said: "I will miss the convenience of living in Bermuda.

"Coming to work in the morning takes me five minutes, I mean it's wonderful.

"I like my scooter, I love my scooter, I just think it's great. I've recently been coming by car, but until six months ago I didn't have a parking place and I came by scooter for three and a half years.

"I like the beach, and I like to walk along Elbow Beach on a Saturday or Sunday morning, at 7 a.m. It is wonderful.

"And I like Monte Carlo very much."

Looking back over his career spanning 50 years, Mr. Johnston says he does not have time for regrets.

"I think it is the most futile thing in the world to say what if I had done so and so because if you think back, if you hadn't got on the bus you were on 42 years ago, you might not have met somebody, or you might have been in a crash, you might have been knocked down."

And he does not regret not having gone to college or university instead of working his way up the corporate ladder.

"You can educate yourself and what a university can't give you is life experience.

"It's all very well to read the text books, but you need something to go along with it, you can't get the life experience at university, but you can read the text books without going to university."

He added: "There are very few people around nowadays that have 50 years of banking experience, I must confess.

"Nobody starts that young any more, so you just can't accumulate that and few people have worked in ten or 11 countries."

When asked what advice he would give to a 17-year-old "boy" at a bank these days, He said: "First of all they don't exist any more.

"You can't get into a bank in the UK without a first degree and all the rest of it.

"They just don't take 17-year-olds into banks, which I think is a shame, because banking isn't rocket science.

"But if he did exist, what I would tell him that I never did that modern philosophy of planning you own career. I just worked hard at every job I did.

"I knew I was going to be successful as a banker the day that the customer went to the manger and said that the pens on the counter were the best of anywhere. You went anywhere else they were all messy, and I knew I had the makings of a banker.

"I would say the same thing to anyone in any job - work hard at what you are given and if you don't like it, go find another job.

"Because it is a long life if you are going to come to work every day not liking what you are doing, it must be awful, I can't imagine it.

"I have just loved my career, loved every minute of it - and I didn't think I would when I was 17.

"Just work hard at every task and do the best you can at every task. It sounds very simple formula and worked for me."