Ada Sawyer: Civic Leader, 0820 RIBJ, RIBJ, 69 RI Bar J., No. 1, Pg. 29

• Author: Denise C. Aiken, Esq. Providence
• Position: Vol. 69 1 Pg. 29

Ada Sawyer: Civic Leader

Vol. 69 No. 1 Pg. 29

Rhode Island Bar Journal

August, 2020

July, 2020

Denise C. Aiken, Esq. Providence

Over the past several years I have written many articles about Rhode Island’s first female attorney, Ada Lewis Sawyer. Ada the legal secretary, Ada the mentee of Percy Winchester Gardner, Ada the drafter of legislation on behalf of women and children, Ada the litigator, Ada the girl with a dream, have all been the subjects of my articles.

Today I am looking at Ada L. Sawyer, Civic Leader. Look at her involvement in both business and civic enterprises in the years just after she was granted by Constitutional Amendment the right to vote, to be a full citizen of these United States.

Ada L. Sawyer was a member of the Wakefield Area Advisory Board of the Industrial National Bank (and no one called it the “Superman Building” back then). She was a corporation member of the Citizens Savings Bank and a director of at least seven other Rhode Island corporations. In addition, she was a corporation member of RI Hospital, the Bethany Home of Rhode Island which was founded in 1892 to give safe housing for women in need, and the Hattie Ide Chaffee Home. She was a director of the former Rhode Island Tuberculosis and Health Association.

Ever interested in preserving Rhode Island’s history, she was a member of the RI Historical Society, the Pettaquamscutt Historical Society, the Providence Preservation Society, the Friends of the Park Museum, the Rhode Island Association for Mental Health, the Rhode Island League of Nursing, the English Speaking Union, the YWCA, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Providence Plantations Club and the Players.

At a time when...