Leader of First American, Washington Area's Largest Bank

Robert G. Stevens, 79, a veteran banker who led District-based First American Bankshares through aggressive growth in the 1980s as its president and chief executive, died Sept. 14 at Anne Arundel Medical Center of a subdural hematoma. He had prostate cancer.

Under Dr. Stevens, First American acquired a series of financial institutions along the Eastern Seaboard and became one of the largest banks in the country. He left the bank in 1989, shortly before it became entangled in one of the biggest bank frauds in history.

The Bank of Credit and Commerce International, a Middle Eastern bank with a murky structure, secretly and illegally owned First American during Dr. Stevens's tenure. BCCI collapsed in 1991 amid allegations of drug-money laundering, the brokering of clandestine arms deals and the financing of terrorists.

Jonathan M. Winer, who worked for Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) as one of the principal investigators of BCCI, said Dr. Stevens was never implicated in wrongdoing.

Dr. Stevens had led banks in Ohio and Rhode Island and had been a vice president of Citibank before being recruited to lead First American by chairman Clark M. Clifford, the Washington lawyer and former defense secretary.

Clifford and his legal protege, Robert A. Altman, had helped structure the purchase of First American by Middle Eastern investors. Criminal charges were later dropped against Clifford because of his age and poor health. Altman, who had a top role at the bank, was acquitted of all criminal charges after a trial.

Even though Dr. Stevens ran daily operations, he later testified at Altman's fraud and bribery trial that lines of authority were unclear. He said he was dismissed after losing a series of arguments with Clifford and Altman over such matters as the need for automated teller machines.

He said that he favored ATMs but that Clifford "said he did not see himself using those kinds of machines to do banking and he didn't quite understand why people would want to do so."

Robert Gene Stevens was born Jan. 4, 1930, in Marion, Ill. His father was a coal miner and traveling salesman, and the younger Stevens later said he entered banking because "it's inside, dry and you can wear a suit."

He was a graduate of Southern Illinois University and then served in the Air Force in Washington during the Korean War. He received a master's degree and a doctorate, both in accounting, from the University of Illinois.

After earning his doctorate in 1958, he spent 10 years at the accounting firm Touche, Ross & Co. in New York and became a partner. With his specialization in the banking industry, he was recruited to Citibank in 1968 and in the 1970s served as president and chief executive of Old Stone Bank in Providence, R.I., and BancOhio National Bank in Columbus, Ohio.

At the Providence bank, the state's largest mutual savings bank, he oversaw its conversion into a stockholder-owned commercial bank.

Dr. Stevens served as a director on several corporate boards, including the Student Loan Marketing Association (Sallie Mae). He taught finance and accounting classes at George Washington University after leaving First American.

His marriage to Susan Krejci Stevens ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife of 19 years, Anne Carman of Annapolis; three sons from his first marriage, David Stevens of San Rafael, Calif., Craig Stevens of Boulder, Colo., and Brian Stevens of Scarsdale, N.Y.; two stepsons, Powell Carman of Webster Groves, Mo., and Christopher Carman of Ladue, Mo.; and seven grandchildren.