President Resigns From Glenfed Inc. : Banking: Keith Russell was brought in to help the thrift diversify. But now the company wants to refocus on traditional S & L business lines.

Keith P. Russell Jr., president and chief operating officer of Glenfed Inc., has resigned effective immediately, the thrift holding company said Monday. Norman M. Coulson, chief executive of the company, will take over Russell’s duties.

Russell, 44, was once seen as a possible successor to Coulson, 57, but “Keith came to Glendale Federal to help us diversify and we’re not diversifying anymore,” Coulson said. Glenfed, the parent of Glendale Federal Bank, is one of several large Southern California thrifts suffering from problems with its commercial real estate loan portfolio.

Coulson described Russell’s decision to resign as “difficult, because Keith and I were close and we did a lot of things together, and he did a good job for us.” Coulson said Russell was not encouraged to resign by the Office of Thrift Supervision, which recently pressured Robert Adelizzi, chief executive of troubled HomeFed Bank in San Diego, to resign.

After ambitious expansion during the 1980s, Glenfed lost $141 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31, mainly because of problems with commercial real estate that led the thrift to add $153 million to its reserves for possible loan losses. In disclosing the large loss, Glenfed announced a “strategic plan” to shed some of its subsidiary businesses and focus on basic mortgage lending and deposit-gathering.

Coulson said that Stephen J. Trafton, who was hired as Glenfed’s chief financial officer in July, “is the architect behind our strategic plan.”

“I think what they’re looking to do is to expand Trafton’s role,” said Campbell K. Chaney, a thrift analyst with Sutro & Co. in San Francisco.

Russell had only held his current positions with Glenfed since July, when he was promoted from Glendale Federal, the company’s main subsidiary, where he served as president and chief operating officer.

He was first hired by Glenfed in 1983 to be general manager of subsidiaries, from Security Pacific Corp., where he had been senior vice president and deputy administrator for specialized financial services.

“Those were the talents Glenfed wanted,” said analyst Chaney, but “his talents as a trained commercial banker no longer fit.”

In its fiscal third quarter, which ended March 31, Glenfed said its earnings fell 94% to $1 million as it continued to add to its loan loss reserves. Meanwhile, its problem assets increased to $716 million on March 31 from $559 million a year before.

And in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Glenfed said “a worsening or protracted economic decline would increase the likelihood of losses.”