Ernesta Gertrude Procope (nee Forster) (2 September 1923 – 30 November 2021) was an American investment banker and insurance executive who was the head of the largest insurance agency run by a Black woman.[1] Ernesta Gertrude Forster was born on Feb. 9, 1923, in Brooklyn and was raised in Bedford-Stuyvesant. As a child, she played the piano and performed once at Carnegie Hall.[2]

She founded the commercial insurance brokerage firm E. G. Bowman, Inc. in 1953, naming it after her husband who had died the previous year.[3] In 1977, E. G. Bowman became the first African American owned business to be located on Wall Street.[4] 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.[5] For this conflict of interest, she, the president, and sixteen other members of the board were removed from their posts.[6]

In 1972, she presented with the Woman of the Year Award by then First Lady, Pat Nixon.[1]

She died on 30 November 2021, in Queens, New York, at the age of 98.[7]


References

  1. 1 2 Roberts, Sam (9 December 2021). "Ernesta Procope, Pioneering Black Insurance Broker, Dies at 98". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  2. ↑ "Ernesta Procope passes". Amsterdam News. 9 December 2021. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ Ernesta G. Procope, The HistoryMakers, 13 June 2006. Accessed 5 July 2020.
  5. ↑ 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.
  6. ↑ Lambert, Bruce (27 September 2020). "NEW YORK REGENTS OUST 18 TRUSTEES FROM ADELPHI U." New York Times. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Arnold, Laurence (10 December 2021). "Ernesta Procope, the 'First Lady of Wall Street', Dies at 98". BloombergQuint. Retrieved 10 December 2021.


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