An unfortunate turn of events during the Great Recession was ultimately a blessing in disguise for Dan Rudolph Jr.

Rudolph's Buick Pontiac GMC was dropped by General Motors when the auto maker went through bankruptcy in 2009, forcing the business to close and Rudolph to seek employment outside his family's long-held dealership.

He decided to try his hand in the commercial banking industry, and quickly began working his way from a secretarial spot up the corporate ladder. He's now a vice president with Washington Trust Bank.

"Every step of the way there were doors opening to knowledge within the complex commercial banking world that were far beyond what I should have been exposed to after only a few months or years in banking and (I) am grateful for those opportunities," he said. "Six years later I am honored to work at Washington Trust Bank and truly enjoy working with incredible businesses in the (Lewiston-Clarkston) Valley and surrounding area."

Rudolph and his wife, Liz, are also partners in a new winery, Vine46, that will have its first release next year.

When he's not working, Rudolph enjoys coaching children's sports, playing music with his family, playing sports, having Nerf gun battles with his kids and spending time with his wife and children.

Doug Bauer: You started your professional career at your family's auto dealership. Are there similarities between selling cars and working in the banking industry?

Dan Rudolph Jr.: Absolutely. I mean, really what it comes down to is whether you are in banking or a direct sales position, in auto sales, sprinkler sales, anything, it's all about relationships and getting to know people and building trust with them and them with you.

DB: You literally started at the ground floor in banking. What's it been like going from where you started to where you are now?

DR: You know, it's really interesting. I was so honored to get a job in a world where I didn't know much about it that I was just really eager to learn. And every time I turned around, there were opportunities to be exposed to new businesses and new industries. The thing that's been just so incredible to me, and one of the reasons I love this job, is even after six years it still seems brand new to me because of the fact that every business is unique, every person is unique, therefore every credit you look at on the commercial side is very unique. What works in one market might not work at all in another market, and vice versa. It's remarkable how you can have industries that some people might paint in a negative light but yet in different markets they succeed very well.

DB: What can you tell me about Vine46?

DR: Vine46 is a group of five couples that joined in together that started off being really good friends brewing home-brewed wine and home-brewed beer together. We're different ages, and all of us came from different industries and different backgrounds, but really it just came down to we enjoyed each other's company and we all shared a passion for wine and we wanted to share that passion with the valley. So we got together two years ago, I guess, and started formulating a plan to start scaling up the size of our home-brew so that we could make better-quality wines and it just grew and grew. Now it's actually going to be a business. When we started, none of us thought that would be the case.

DB: Where is it going to be located?

DR: We have recently purchased a building downtown and we're looking forward to remodeling that and bringing that up to what our standards are and doing a good job of modeling what Mark Alexander and some of the other people who have injected a lot of money into downtown have done, so that we can bring something special to downtown Lewiston and hopefully become a destination for people.

DB: You're an American football fan who has embraced soccer as a sport. Can you tell me a little about that?

DR: Absolutely. You can know that somebody is primarily a soccer fan now when they refer to football as American football, right? Because we, Americans, (have) football and then there's soccer. I grew up playing football, my dad played football, my grandfather played for the 49ers. That was the sport that we did, and to this day (I) love it. But after you get out of high school and there's no college opportunity, it's tough to find a pickup football game. A lot of times people get on the sidelines and get passionate about watching it, but you can't really play it anymore. I got married to Liz and we went over on our honeymoon to Scotland and were able to go to a couple of games over there throughout the UK, some 'friendlies' as they're called. I was just able to see this overwhelming passion these people have for soccer in the UK. It's so embedded in their culture that it's religious, literally, for some people. Her family is from Glasgow. Just that passion and enthusiasm overwhelmed me, and I just loved it. I started following soccer at that point in time, and since then I've started playing city league soccer and I've really enjoyed that. Now I follow it like crazy.

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Bauer is managing editor of the Lewiston Tribune. He may be contacted at dbauer@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2269.