Michael Towbes, who founded Montecito Bank & Trust (MB&T) in 1975, struck a different tone than most bankers when he […more…]

The Santa Barbara Public Library Foundation celebrated the Santa Barbara Public Library and National Library Card Sign Up Month at […more…]

The Santa Barbara Library Foundation’s director Lauren Trujillo is in a celebratory mood.  The foundation’s $5.4 million capital campaign to […more…]

Born and raised in a leafy suburb of Detroit, Michigan, located near the city’s zoo, Anne Towbes grew up surrounded […more…]

Sometimes, life’s lessons emerge from the most unlikely places. For Janet Garufis – Montecito Bank & Trust’s dynamic chairman and […more…]

Santa Barbara has been defined, all at once, as an enclave of the wealthy, a surf-bum beach town, and a […more…]

Banks don’t usually spring to mind when one writes about beacons of community trust, good deeds, and hope. But even […more…]

During the pandemic, Santa Barbarans got a fresh reminder of how vital the public library is to the community. As […more…]

Though his parents are from the Bronx, George Leis spent a good chunk of his wonder years growing up in […more…]

My parents, Michael and Gail Towbes, moved to Santa Barbara County in 1957, and from the beginning, they were deeply […more…]