Financial History 134 (Summer 2020) | Page 12

DAVID L. DODD Out of Ben Graham’s Shadow By James Russell Kelly The September/October 1984 edition of the Financial Analysts Journal featured a cover story celebrating the 50th anniversary of Graham & Dodd’s Security Analysis. The lead article was entitled “Graham and Dodd: A Durable Discipline,” and was written by Roger F. Murray, their successor at Columbia. The cover page featured images of the two men, with Graham in the foreground. In the March/April 1985 edition, David Dodd responded in a letter to the editor: The front cover of the September/ October issue of Financial Analysts Journal very properly shows me in Ben Graham’s shadow. Ben was my mentor in our profession from the time in September 1928 when I joined him as a junior colleague in what proved to be a very popular late afternoon course in security analysis offered by Columbia’s School of Business... Most of what I know about our profession I got from him firsthand... My debt to him is very great indeed. When, in 1984, I was awarded an honorary degree by Columbia University for my part in the preparation of Security Analysis, I had moments of sadness that it was I, rather than Ben, who was being so honored. (Graham passed away in September 1976.) This article aspires to bring David Dodd out of Ben Graham’s shadow by shining a bright light on Dodd and his accomplishments. Courtesy of David Anderson David L. Dodd, circa 1960. 10 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2020 | www.MoAF.org