First Woman National Bank Examiner

Adelia Stewart knew that through initiative, ambition and tenacity, a civil service stenographer could rise to a lofty position. Stewart worked her way up from that job in 1892 to become the OCC’s first woman national bank examiner.

Comptroller John Skelton Williams commissioned her in 1920.

Stewart was also the first woman to become chief of the Division of Examinations, equivalent to the current position of chief national bank examiner.

Stewart attended law school at night and earned a law degree in 1914.

"A knowledge of commercial law is absolutely necessary to anyone who expects to advance in this sort of work," she said.