William B. Geery

William Geery was the final person to hold the title of governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, from 1927 to 1936, following seven years as deputy governor. Geery initially shared power with Federal Reserve Agent John Peyton until 1935 when the Federal Reserve Board discontinued dual leadership of the District Banks and created the title of president, to be assumed by the current Federal Reserve agent. In Minneapolis that was John Peyton. Geery was relegated to the unpaid position of chairman of the board of directors on March 1, 1936, and retired February 1, l937.

Geery was born in 1867 in Medina, Ohio, but spent much of his youth in Ripon, Wisconsin, where he attended Ripon public schools and part of a year at Ripon College. He also completed one year of night law school through the University of Wisconsin.

He started his banking career as a clerk in Ripon, Wisconsin, before moving to St. Paul, where he worked his way up from a teller position in 1890 at Capital National Bank of St. Paul, formerly St. Paul National Bank, to vice president of that bank by 1920. 

Geery died in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1949 at the age of eighty-two.

Written by the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. See disclaimer.