Mary M. Gindhart

1905 - 1984  (79 years)

• Name	Mary M. Gindhart
  Birth	29 Jul 1905	West Collingswood, Camden, New Jersey
  Gender	Female
  Death	25 Oct 1984	Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey
  Burial	Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey
  Person ID	I30760	Scudder
  Last Modified	7 Dec 2007

  
  

  Family	Siegfried Roebling,   b. 29 Dec 1890, Morris Plains, New Jersey d. 1 Jan 1936, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California (Age 45 years)
  Marriage	1933
  Children	1. Paul Roebling,   b. 1 Mar 1934, Trenton, Mercer, New Jersey d. 2 Aug 1994, Teec Nos Pos Navajo Indian Reservation, Arizona (Age 60 years)
  Family ID	F10880	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	3 Mar 2024

  
  

• Notes

  Mary's father was the President of Keystone & Eastern Telephone Company, while her mother was a pianist and vocalist, who introduced the public school system to the sight reading of music. Mary's first introduction to the world of business began with her father, whom she accompanied to various civic and business functions that her mother was unable to attend. In 1921, at the age of sixteen, Mary married a young soldier named Arthur Herbert, nephew of the American conductor and composer, Victor Herbert. She and Arthur had a daughter named Elizabeth in 1922, but their marriage was cut short when Arthur died of blood poisoning in 1924. After the death of her husband, Mary moved in with her parents and joined a Philadelphia brokerage house as a secretary. She studied merchandising and business administration at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, at night because women were not admitted to classes during the day. Promoted to "customer's woman," she became a financial advisor to Siegfried Roebling, grandson of Colonel Washington Roebling, the builder of the Brooklyn Bridge. Siegfried ran one of the family's businesses, the Trenton Trust Company. On Siegfried's death, he left his wife among other things a large stock interest in Trenton Trust Co. No stranger to authority, Mary was the only woman representative on New Jersey's new State Unemployment Compensation Commission, finance chairman of Trenton's Maternal Health Center, director of the Mercer County Health League. No lover of publicity, she was careful to point out that there are about 4,500 women officers in U. S. banks, 75 of them bank presidents. As executor of her husband's estate, Mary Roebling was urged by her father-in-law, John A. Roebling, to become President of the Trenton Trust Company. The tragedy of the loss of her husband marks the beginning of her career as a banker, as she became the first woman to serve as President of a major commercial bank, and four years later began serving in the dual capacity of President and Chairman of the Board, also a first for a woman. During the first years of her appointment, she took evening courses at New York University in order to improve her knowledge of banking practices, and studied law with a private tutor. She quickly became a success, establishing innovative practices of public relations and merchandising, as well as drive-in banking and a railroad station branch for Trenton commuters. Under her leadership, Trenton Trust's assets increased from 17 to 137 million in a twenty-eight year period. Roebling brought a particularly feminine touch to the operation of her bank: she was the first banker to hold "financial teas" to introduce wealthy women to the advantages of trust funds; she distributed umbrellas when it was raining, leant her board rooms for women's club meetings, and sponsored art shows and displays of customers' merchandise. Before other banks, Trenton Trust employed professional window dressers. Roebling also arranged special Christmas concerts at the bank, and distributed 50,000 pots of shamrock on St. Patrick's Day. In 1972, when the Trenton Trust Company merged with the National State Bank in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Roebling was elected Chairman of the Board for the combined institution, in which capacity she served until her retirement in 1984. As Chairman Emeritus, Roebling continued to solicit business and promote the interests of the bank. Roebling's personal and business lives were closely connected. As a friend recalled, "You must understand that when she was entertaining she was also working for the bank. Her personal life and her business life were the same." Although disabled by a stroke in later years, she remained active until her death from renal failure on October 25, 1994.