Here’s a 1961 “Christmas Message” Printed Letter by Former President Herbert Hoover to his friend, and noted 1st woman banker, Mary Roebling

HERBERT HOOVER

(1874 – 1964)

31st PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

Hoover was also the Secretary of Commerce under President Harding and Coolidge, An Engineer, Humanitarian, and Life Insurance Executive!

HERE’S A RARE LETTER BY HOOVER from his home at “The Towers~Waldorf Astoria” in New York City to his friend Mary Roebling (1905-1994) who was the first woman to serve as President of a major US bank (the Trenton Trust Company) and the first woman Governor of the American Stock Exchange! 1p., dated December 25, 1961.

Hoover’s message discusses the tide of atheism rising to more violence than at any time since the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ and that all faiths are in danger: Christian, Jewish, the teachings of Buddha and of Mohammed.

THE ORIGINAL PRINTED HOOVER FREE FRANK TRANSMITTAL ENVELOPE COVER IS INCLUDED WITH THE LETTER, ADDRESSED TO:

“Miss Mary Roebling, President

Trenton Trust Company

28 West State Street,

Trenton, New Jersey”

 

MARY ROEBLING

(1905 – 1994)

FIRST WOMAN TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT OF A MAJOR US BANK, CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF THE NATIONAL STATE BANK OF NEW JERSEY, and THE FIRST WOMAN GOVERNOR OF THE AMERICAN STOCK EXCHANGE

PROVENANCE: This Letter was purchased from the now deceased grandson of Mary Roebling (David Dutch) at his home in New Jersey in 2017, and has never seen the collector market!

The document measures 7¼” x 10½” and is in VERY FINE, CLEAN CONDITION! AND BOLDLY SIGNED BY THE PRESIDENT!

A RARE ADDITION TO YOUR HISTORICAL-POLITICAL-PRESIDENTIAL MANUSCRIPT & EPHEMERA COLLECTION.

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE HONORABLE

HERBERT HOOVER

Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was the 31st President of the United States (1929–1933). Hoover, born to Quaker parents of German, Swiss, Canadian, English, and Irish descent, was originally a professional mining engineer and author. He achieved American and international prominence in humanitarian relief efforts and served as head of the U.S. Food Administration before and during World War I. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted partnerships between government and business under the rubric "economic modernization". In the presidential election of 1928, Hoover easily won the Republican nomination, despite having no elected-office experience. Hoover is the most recent cabinet secretary to be elected President of the United States, as well as one of only two Presidents (along with William Howard Taft) elected without electoral experience or high military rank. America was at the height of an economic bubble at the time, facilitating a landslide victory for Hoover over Democrat Al Smith.

Hoover, a globally experienced engineer, believed strongly in the Efficiency Movement, which held that the government and the economy were riddled with inefficiency and waste, and could be improved by experts who could identify the problems and solve them. He also believed in the importance of volunteerism and of the role of individuals in society and the economy. Hoover, who had made a small fortune in mining, was the first of two Presidents to redistribute their salary (President Kennedy was the other; he donated all his paychecks to charity). When the Wall Street Crash of 1929 struck less than eight months after he took office, Hoover tried to combat the ensuing Great Depression with government enforced efforts, public works projects such as the Hoover Dam, tariffs such as the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, an increase in the top tax bracket from 25% to 63% and increases in corporate taxes. These initiatives did not produce economic recovery during his term, but served as the groundwork for various policies incorporated in Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal. After 1933 he became a spokesman in opposition to the domestic and foreign policies of the New Deal. In 1947 President Harry S. Truman brought him back to help make the federal bureaucracy more efficient through the Hoover Commission. The consensus among historians is that Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was caused primarily by his failure to end the downward economic spiral, although his support for strong enforcement of prohibition was also a significant factor.


BIOGRAPHY OF MARY ROEBLING

Mary Gindhart Herbert Roebling (1905–1994) was an American banker. She was the first woman to serve as president of a major US bank, and the first woman Governor of the American Stock Exchange.

Biography

Mary Gindhart was born in West Collingswood, New Jersey on July 29, 1905.  She attended public schools in Moorestown and Haddonfield. She married musician Arthur Herbert in her teens and had a daughter. He died three years later. She then worked in Philadelphia at an investment house while taking night classes in business administration and merchandising at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her second husband, Siegfried Roebling, died in 1936 and left her Trenton Trust stock. She took his seat on the Trenton Trust Company board. She was elected president of the board on January 21, 1937 and became the first woman to serve as president of a major American bank. She served as either president or chair of the board until 1972 when the bank merged with National State. She then chaired the combined banks until 1984. From 1958 to 1962, she was governor of the American Stock Exchange. She was their first woman governor.

Through several administrations, Roebling served as a civilian aide to the Secretary of the Army. She was made president of the new Army War College Foundation in 1978. That year she also founded Women's Bank N.A. in Denver and chaired its board until 1983.

She died on October 25, 1994 of renal failure at her home in Trenton, NJ.


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