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At Commerce Bancshares, though, John Kemper took over Aug. 1 as chief executive of the nation’s 45th-largest bank. He succeeds his father, David, and a long line of family members starting with his great-great-great grandfather, William S. Woods, who bought a small Kansas City bank in 1881.

In an interview at his Clayton office, Kemper sounded humble about his predecessors’ legacy, but confident that he can live up to their standards. The family’s “secret sauce,� he said, boils down to a solid business model and continuity of vision.

“The organization’s transition from David Kemper to John Kemper is going to be one of degrees of difference, not wholesale change,� the 40-year-old CEO said. “We’re both very results-focused leaders.�

Results have earned the Kemper family, which owns less than 5 percent of Commerce’s stock, the right to keep running the company. Commerce has survived financial panics from 1893, when 500 other banks failed, to 2008, when it was one of the largest banks that didn’t accept bailout money.

Shareholder returns amounted to nearly 15 percent a year during David Kemper’s 32 years as CEO, compared with 10 percent for the broad stock market.

Commerce excels at a no-surprises style of banking with high credit standards, plenty of capital and gradual but steady growth.

“If you want to sum it up with a couple of easy words, I’d say strength, security and vision,� says banking analyst Joseph Stieven, who runs Stieven Capital Advisors. “They have always been one of the soundest banks in the U.S.�

Commerce calls itself a “super-community bank,� with a branch network stretching from Denver to central Illinois and a few specialty businesses, such as corporate payments, that compete nationwide.

In an industry where giant banks are under extreme scrutiny from regulators and little banks struggle to keep up with technology, Kemper thinks middle-sized is a good thing to be.

“We’ve found kind of a sweet spot,� he says. “The small banks, a lot of them are sub-scale, and on the big side there’s a different set of challenges. They have incredible R&D budgets, but have a hard time getting their ducks in a row when it comes to delivering services.�

Kansas City and St. Louis, which Commerce considers dual headquarters, are by far the bank’s biggest markets, but much of its loan growth lately has come from places such as Denver, Dallas and Cincinnati. Commerce has only commercial lending offices in the latter two cities.

That model involves hiring lenders, payment experts and other corporate specialists in each market. It’s a faster path to profitability than buying or building full-service branches, Kemper says.

The new CEO has been a St. Louisan since age 7, when his father moved here to run Commerce’s St. Louis operations. Following his father’s example, he has become involved with several local civic institutions.

He spent three years as board chairman at , which runs five charter schools, and says education is a personal passion. “They are delivering results in a part of our community that desperately needs help,� Kemper says. “I see education as a platform issue for St. Louis that needs our full attention.�

It’s also a business issue: The bank and its customers need future workers, and Commerce can’t thrive if St. Louis doesn’t.

“We recognize that our fortunes are going to ebb and flow with those of the local economy,� Kemper said.

John Kemper's father was among the top paid CEOs in St. Louis