Former Golden West C.E.O. Marion Sandler dies at 81 | News

SAN FRANCISCO (NEWS CENTER) - Marion Sandler, ex-CEO of Golden West and Biddeford native, has died at her home in San Francisco.

She was 81 years old.

According to her website, Sandler was born in Biddeford on October 17, 1930. She graduated from Wellesley college and moved into business, earning a certificate of Business Administration from Harvard-Radcliffe and her MBA from New York University.

She broke a number of gender barriers, becoming the first woman to be awarded the Marcus Nadler Thesis award, the first female executive at Dominick & Dominick, Incorporated and, was reportedly called "the first and longest-serving woman chief executive officer in the United States" by the Columbia School of Journalism for her time as C.E.O. of Golden West.

Sandler and her husband, Herbert, bought the savings-and-loan business in 1963 and built it into a highly lauded, publicly traded billion dollar company. The Sandler's sold Golden West to Wachovia for $24 billion in 2006.

The New York Times says analysts consistently rated Golden West as a risk-averse money making machine. It wound up on Fortune's list of Most Admired Companies ten times.

The Sandlers had long been philanthropists, founding ProPublica, a nonprofit that specializes in investigative reporting. In a profile on their philanthropy, The New York Times says they also helped finance the American Civil Liberties Union and the Human Rights Watch.

She is survived by her husband and their children.