Anita Rounds was a pioneering bank executive at a time when women were rarely in leading roles at international financial institutions. From the 1970s through the 1990s she handled account portfolios of major corporations including Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and CSX Corporation. While forging a path for women in banking, she was also a devoted wife, mother and grandmother.
Anita Ruth Rounds (nee Herman) was born on April 17, 1937 in Brooklyn, New York to businessman Harry S. Herman and his wife Goldie Brotman Herman. Anita graduated from high school in Brooklyn in 1953 at the age of 16, and attended Barnard College where she graduated in 1957 with a degree in political science. Following Barnard, she attended the University of California Berkeley, graduating in 1959 with a master’s degree in international economics, with a focus on Latin American economic development.
Following her graduation from Cal, she became Latin American Research Editor for Business International in New York and then returned to the Bay Area to become editor of the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco’s Monthly Review. She then moved to France working for the US Department of Defense as a social and cultural attache for military personnel at an army base in southwestern France. Moving back to New York in 1965, she worked as an admissions counselor at the International Student Center at NYU.
In 1967, Anita was hired at Bank of America’s international division in New York. She was one of the few women accepted into their officer training program for corporate banking. In 1971, she moved with BofA to Miami as an assistant vice president, overseeing accounts based in Latin America. She moved back to New York with BofA in 1974 and over the course of her 20-year career with the international banking corporation, she rose to the role of vice president and supervised a portfolio of accounts in the billions of dollars. In 1994, she moved to Midland Bank (now part of HSBC) as vice president. Working into her 60s, she moved to Atlanta, Georgia working for CIBC, before retiring from her professional career in 2003 and moving to Scottsdale, Arizona.
At the time of her death, she was living close to her family in Round Rock, Texas. She is survived by her beloved husband of 46 years Richard Allen Rounds of Round Rock; her treasured daughter Melinda Krigel, her son-in-law David Krigel and her beloved granddaughter Sasha, all of Austin Texas. She was preceded in death by her brother Bertram Herman.
An avid traveler, Anita toured Europe in her youth and traveled throughout Asia when she lived with her husband and daughter in Hong Kong in the late 70s. She and her husband Richard also enjoyed traveling throughout the U.S. and Canada. She loved classical music and shared her love of ballet, opera, and orchestral music with her daughter Melinda. Anita was a devoted and caring wife and mother, and discovered the immense joy of being a grandmother to Sasha.
A life-long Democrat, she began campaigning for candidates while still in high school and continued while in college and throughout her life. She campaigned for Adlai Stevenson, JFK, and Hubert Humprhey during their runs for president and Georgia Max Clelland in her retirement. She believed strongly in equality for all, the civil rights movement, and women’s rights.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.9.5