Barbara Blum's Women's National Bank Being Sold

Barbara Blum, right, founded the Women's National Bank in 1983 after having served as Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the Carter Administration. She changed the name to the Adams National Bank to the Adams National Bank in tribute to Abigail Adams [and mainstream sensibilities]. Ms. Blum stepped down from Adams Bank after a hostile takeover in 1998. Premier Financial Bancorp Inc of Huntington, West Virginia, is buying the Adams National Bank and the combined bank will have assets of about $1.2 billion and deposits of about $950 million. The deal is expected to close by July 2009, pending regulatory and shareholder approvals.

Barbara Blum, right, was of great assistance to us in our formative years in the 1980s. Center President Norris McDonald first met Blum in 1979 when she was a board member at what is now Friends of the Earth. She was invaluable to the early success of the Center and we appreciate her assistance. From 1983 to 1998 she was Founder, Chair, President and CEO of the Women's National Bank, the oldest and largest bank then owned and managed by women.