52 Ancestors: Working - Dean Witter

Last week I mentioned that I "discovered" an album I'd stashed away where I found some great photos of my parents at their graduations from Stanford University - you can read it HERE.  PLEASE tell me that others have stashed things away and forgotten that they had them?

Also included in the album were a lot of newspaper clippings - remember that my dad had a bit of the scrapbooking gene in him.  Most of them were loose and just haphazardly placed into the album - his parents apparently didn't teach him appropriate scrapbook etiquette.  I never really had the scrapbook gene but I guess you could argue that my blog is the 21st century form of scrapbooking.

After my dad's graduation in 1951, they moved to San Jose where my dad began his career at Dean Witter.

San Jose Mercury, 17 Sep 1951

San Jose Mercury, 14 Oct 1951

Interesting that Dean Witter was located in the Bank of America Building - more on that later.

By 1952, Dad offered San Jose Chamber of Commerce members "a positive investment policy".  The article is small and hard to read but a couple of his rules to follow are below.

San Jose Mercury, 3 Feb 1952

• Select concerns manufacturing needed goods.
• Choose concerns that are leaders in their particular industry.
• Achieve diversification (such as five different companies in as many industries to spread the risk).
• Put the same amount of dollars in each company.  
• Buy shares listed on major exchanges.
• Choose shares having a 10-year earning and dividend record and only those shares which have earned $5 for every $4 paid out in dividends.
• Annually weed out poorer stocks and replace them with better ones.
• Deal only with a reputable brokerage house or bank.
• Buy only on one's own capital (instead of with borrowed money).

I wonder how Dad would feel now with the self-investing that is prevalent today.  I can remember him coming home after a day's work and saying how bad the market performed that day and he'd say "can you believe the Dow was down 25 points today?"  He'd be hanging on for the ride these days!

This article has no date but I assume it's from the same event.  Not as detailed but easier to read.

And then, the office moved from the Bank of America Building.  I often wondered if he started at the office on First Street and now I see that he did not.

Wall Street Journal, 15 Dec 1952

Newspaper and date unknown

Oh boy, I remember the quotation boards where someone would stand at a chalk board all day and change the quotes.  And they called that fast information and service.

And here's Dad posing in front of the new office.  I remember going there as a child.

Another interesting story that I could have helped Dad with.  In the 1980's Dad felt the need to "try out" another career and joined the San Jose Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau - they must have liked his talk in 1952.  He spent a decade with the Chamber and then decided to go back to what he loved and re-joined Dean Witter.  I remember him telling me that when he went back they were not going to give him "credit" towards his pension for his previous service there.  Believe it or not, there were no computer records and my packrat father couldn't come up with an old pay stub or anything to prove that he'd previously worked there.  He told me that finally he was able to come up with a photo of him shaking hands with Dean Witter - success!  But if he'd only looked at his own scrapbook he would have found this.....

Dean Witter was a special part of Dad's life and I'm glad he left me some mementos so that I could take a trip in his honor down memory lane.