The story
The company traces its roots to St. Patrick's Day 1839, when Northwestern Bank of Virginia opened an office in Parkersburg (now in West Virginia). On St. Patrick's Day, some branches celebrate the bank's birthday by giving shamrocks to customers. That office eventually evolved into Parkersburg National Bank.
Richard Adams was named chairman and CEO of Parkersburg National Bank in 1975. In 1982, Parkersburg National began reorganizing as a holding company, United Bankshares. In 1984, United commenced full operations when it acquired Parkersburg National and two other banks. In 1987, the company became a public company via an initial public offering.
Under Adams's tenure, United completed 33 acquisitions. In 2022, American Banker named Richard Adams the "longest-serving CEO among the top 100 U.S. banks" after 47 years. Richard "Rick" Adams, Jr., who has served as United's president since 2014, became CEO in April 2022.
Acquisitions
The company has made the following acquisitions:
From Wikipedia’s article on United Bank (West Virginia), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5