Gail Winslow Ginsburgh, member of stock exchange
Gail Winslow Ginsburgh, 85, of Naples, Fla., Bethesda, Md., and Rehoboth Beach, died peacefully Saturday, Sept. 12, 2015, at Beebe Healthcare, Lewes. She was born Dec. 2, 1929, in Baltimore, Md., daughter of the late Allen and Carolyn (Myers) Whitehead.
After attending Radcliffe College, she married Alan F. Winslow, a Central Intelligence Agency officer. Her second marriage in 1959 was to Robert N. Ginsburgh, an Air Force officer who went on to serve as an aide to President John F. Kennedy and President Lyndon Johnson and retired as a major general. In 1956, she joined Ferris & Company, a Washington, D.C.-based brokerage and investment bank as a secretary and “gal Friday.”
She was a pioneer in a male-dominated industry. After passing the Securities and Exchange Commission exam, she became a successful stockbroker. According to a 1958 newspaper headline, “in a man’s world, Gail Winslow is a financial whiz.” In recognition of her growing stature on Wall Street, the New York Stock Exchange invited her to visit the all-male trading floor. Until then, the exchange had issued only two other invitations to women - the widow of former President Calvin Coolidge and the actress Tallulah Bankhead.
She rose swiftly through Ferris & Company and was admitted as a general partner in 1965. In 1977 Gail was appointed vice chairman. In the 1990s, the firm’s successor, Ferris Baker Watts Inc. registered a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in her name in honor of her service. After the Royal Bank of Canada acquired the firm in 2008, she was appointed senior vice president-financial advisor, a position she held at the time of her death.
She served on the boards of many charitable and educational institutions, including Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., the Choral Arts Society of Washington, WETA, Washington’s public television station, Washington Area Tennis Patrons Foundation and the YWCA.
Mrs. Ginsburgh was also a member of the Maryland State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. In 2008, Heritage University in Toppenish, Wash. established the Gail Winslow Ginsburgh Scholarship. She was a passionate world traveler, sports fan, and an avid bridge player who in 2013 became a Life Master.
She is survived by six children: Alan Winslow III of San Francisco, R. Brand Ginsburgh of Annapolis, Md., William Winslow of Reston, Va., C. Lee Ginsburgh of Williamsburg, Va., Carolyn Grant-Suttie of Potomac, Md., and Anne Rosenau of Washington. She is also survived by six grandchildren: Hickory Ginsburgh of Redondo Beach, Calif., Katherine Grant-Suttie of Seattle, Wash., Catherine Winslow of Boston, Mass., Ian Grant-Suttie of Denver. Colo., Grant Ginsburgh and Trevor Ginsburgh, both of Williamsburg, and William Rosenau of Washington; and by two great-grandchildren, Millie and Chloe Ginsburgh of Redondo Beach.
A Memorial Service will be held at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Washington at a date to be set. Arrangements by Parsell Funeral Homes & Crematorium, Atkins-Lodge Chapel, Lewes.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her memory to the Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758517, Topeka, Kansas 66675 or woundedwarriorproject.org.
Please visit Gail's Life Memorial webpage and sign her online guestbook at www.parsellfuneralhomes.com.
