Mary Margaret O'Reilly

O'Reilly was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to an Irish immigrant family. Growing up in that state, she left school around the age of 14 to help support both her widowed mother and her siblings. Likely starting work in the local textile mills, she gained clerical training at night school before working as a clerk in Worcester for eighteen years. In 1904, O'Reilly gained a position at the Mint Bureau, resulting in a move to Washington, D.C. She rose rapidly in the bureau's hierarchy – an unusual feat for a woman at that time – and was frequently called upon to testify before the United States Congress. As many of the Mint's directors were political appointees who had little knowledge of or interest in the bureau's operations, the task of running the institution often fell to her. In 1924 she was officially appointed assistant director.

In 1933, the Mint gained its first woman Director, Nellie Tayloe Ross, and despite initial mistrust between her and O'Reilly, they came to forge a strong bond. Although scheduled for mandatory retirement in 1935, O'Reilly was considered to be so indispensable to the bureau's operations that U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt postponed this until 1938. During her later years, O'Reilly remained in Washington D.C.; she no longer involved herself in Mint affairs, instead devoting much of her attention to Catholic charitable work.

Early life and career Mary Margaret O'Reilly was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, on October 14, 1865. Her parents, James A. and Joanna O'Reilly, were immigrants from Ireland, and Mary was one of five children. The family lived in Springfield and nearby Chicopee, Massachusetts, where James O'Reilly was a liquor wholesaler. He died after an illness in 1873. As well as depriving the family of income, his death caused his family legal trouble: Austin O'Reilly, a clerk in the now-closed O'Reilly business, tried to settle the estate by selling the remaining alcohol, but lacked a license to do so. Joanna O'Reilly denied any knowledge of business affairs. Austin's conviction for transporting liquor without a license was upheld by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Mary left school after ninth grade, at or soon after age 14, as her help was needed to support the family. She likely worked for one of the local textile mills, and attended night school to train as a clerk and stenographer. From 1885 to 1903, she worked as a clerk, living in Worcester along with a brother, in a boarding house owned by their mother.

Mint career (1904–1938)

Rise to prominence O'Reilly was hired by the United States Bureau of the Mint as a Class D temporary clerk in 1904, when she was 38 years old, older than most new employees. She served in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Bureau of the Mint, where Mint Director George E. Roberts was impressed by her business experience and competence. Initially having only temporary status, she was made a permanent employee in 1905, and was promoted again that year to Clerk Class I at a salary of $1,200. When Margaret Kelly was commissioned Examiner of the Bureau of the Mint in 1911, the ripple of promotions in her wake included O'Reilly, who became adjuster of accounts. This made her in effect the chief clerk of the Mint Bureau, with responsibility for reviewing all contracts. According to Teva J. Scheer, biographer of Nellie Tayloe Ross (O'Reilly's final Mint Director before retirement) "it must have required an almost unprecedented combination of drive and intelligence for [O'Reilly] to have climbed so far up through the organization in her male-dominated work environment".

Mint Director George E. Roberts (shown on his Mint medal by Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber)

During the 1910s, O'Reilly continued to gain promotion, serving both as examiner and as computer of bullion. She was frequently called upon to testify before Congress. In 1915, Robert W. Woolley was appointed Mint Director, and was likely O'Reilly's favorite of those who served in that position during her third of a century at the Mint. She often concluded memoranda with personal good wishes, and Woolley reciprocated. After Woolley resigned in August 1916, O'Reilly served as acting director for part of the time until Woolley's successor Friedrich Johannes Hugo von Engelken took office the next month, though Adjuster of the Bureau of the Mint Fred H. Chafflin held the acting position for much of the interregnum.

Assistant director Most directors of the Mint of the early 20th century were political appointees, lacking previous experience with the bureau. Von Engelken during his six-month term as director in 1916 and 1917 left almost all supervision of the mints and assay offices to O'Reilly. The Mint eliminated production of proof coins, popular among collectors, in 1916. Although the suggestion that the bureau eliminate the special coins, on which it lost money, came from Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Adam M. Joyce, and was approved by von Engelken, O'Reilly signed many of the letters to numismatists, and thus was blamed for the change in policy.

When von Engelken resigned in February 1917, his successor was Raymond T. Baker, who foresaw that women would hold high government positions in increasing numbers, and gave O'Reilly a more public role. Each year, Baker appeared before Congress to defend the bureau's appropriation requests, and O'Reilly sat behind him. In 1920 and 1921, Baker tried to get Congress to formally designate O'Reilly, who then held the title of executive clerk, as assistant director, but without success. After the Harding administration took office, Baker was replaced in 1922 by Frank E. Scobey, one of Harding's Ohio Gang. The new director had little interest in Mint affairs, and O'Reilly not only supervised the bureau's operations, but was the chief witness before Congress in 1922, defending both the appropriation request and the continuing drive to have herself designated assistant director. This time, Congress was more amenable, and she gained the title effective from 1924. and a week later editorialized that "there is modernity here, too. An answer to America's challenge to women. It points to what women want out of life, and what women can get and give."

Retirement and death After her retirement, O'Reilly continued to live in her rooms at the Hay–Adams residence in Washington. She did not involve herself in Mint affairs; though Morgenthau sent her a few letters, they did not mention business. O'Reilly kept busy by organizing fundraising for Catholic charities. She was not interviewed when the Mint in 1944 investigated how several 1933 double eagles, never officially released, had come onto the market, an omission Burdette finds unusual.

O'Reilly died on December6, 1949, in Washington. Her New York Times obituary recalled that when she had been granted the first extension by Roosevelt, reporters had sought to interview her, only to be met with the following statement: