Ernesta G. Procope
Ernesta Gertrude Procope (nee Forster) (2 September 1923 – 30 November 2021) was an American investment banker and insurance executive. Ernesta Gertrude Forster was born on Feb. 9, 1923, in Brooklyn and was raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant (note 1). She founded the commercial insurance brokerage firm E. G. Bowman, Inc. in 1953, naming it after her husband who had died the previous year.[1] In 1977, E. G. Bowman became the first African American owned business to be located on Wall Street.[2] She was also the chairperson of the board of directors at Adelphi University. An investigation of the school's finances showed that it was a customer of E. G. Bowman.[3] For this conflict of interest, she, the president, and sixteen other members of the board were removed from their posts.[4]
She died on 30 November 2021, in Queens, New York, at the age of 98.[5]
Note 1 - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/business/ernesta-procope-dead.html
References
- Jessie Carney Smith (2012). Black Firsts: 4,000 Ground-Breaking and Pioneering Historical Events. Visible Ink Press. p. 171. ISBN 978-1-57859-424-5.
- Ernesta G. Procope, The HistoryMakers, 13 June 2006. Accessed 5 July 2020.
- Lambert, Bruce (24 September 1996). "Chairwoman of Adelphi's Board Is Accused of Using Her Double Role to Advantage". New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2020.
- Lambert, Bruce (27 September 2020). "NEW YORK REGENTS OUST 18 TRUSTEES FROM ADELPHI U." New York Times. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
- Arnold, Laurence (10 December 2021). "Ernesta Procope, the 'First Lady of Wall Street', Dies at 98". BloombergQuint. Retrieved 10 December 2021.