the Museum’ s mission, its mandates to preserve history and educate the public, it spoke to us as a family. We wanted to say just a few words about how Dad tried to honor the history and educate people about the American financial system.
Becoming part of the NYSE and being a part of the NYSE’ s role in the history of American finance was never lost on our father. At the age of 23, a poor kid from Jersey City went to sign the same member’ s roster as JP Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, and this was an accomplishment that he was so proud of. I got to sign it, many years later. He went to work every day at what he called the“ Cathedral of Finance.” In fact, I once set up a tour for a friend of mine with my dad, and he likened it to getting a tour of the Vatican from the Pope. He knew his history backwards and forwards.
As for education, some of that started at home. While other kids were into comic books like Howard the Duck, our father brought us the ones from the New York Fed explaining how banking and money supply worked. Those were kind of hard to trade! It was an early lesson about supply and demand. Many people in the industry were scared once the reporters got live access to the floor of the exchange. But Dad’ s thought was,“ If they’ re going to be telling the story, let’ s make sure they get it right.” That began his efforts to educate the reporters on the most important of the five Ws: the why of the story. As Bob can attest, Dad thought the why was the most critical. His hope was that by educating the reporters, he would have some part in educating the investors.
Dad’ s respect and possibly even love of history and education was born in his Jesuit experience, with critical and analytical thinking. He certainly excelled in applying that to the markets, and he made sure that he applied that to our lives. Those were the tools he brought with him when he entered the financial arena. We are proud to have the current president of his alma mater, Xavier High School, here to honor that dimension of Dad. Our family is working with Xavier to establish multiple scholarships in his honor. In closing, our family would like to thank the many friends who are here to honor Dad. We hope you support the Museum and its efforts to preserve our history and educate [ individuals ], and we hope that it will strengthen our economy and our society.
ADMIRAL BILL OWENS
US Navy, Retired
What a pleasure to be here at the Museum’ s Gala. I just want to tell you about this special guy, Dick Gephardt. When I was senior in the military, I spent a lot of time in Congress— a lot of time to observe what was going on there and a lot of time with people who really mattered, who served this country. And I think that’ s really my emphasis tonight. When you look at those who truly served— these people like Dick Gephardt, who were there for everyone across the aisle— these people were always thinking of what was the best thing for this country. They did these many important things. And I have to ask, where are these people today?
I’ ve served with Dick on several boards, always looking to him for knowledge. And, of course, the boards were always interested in who was going to win the next election. He was never wrong, and we all benefited from Dick Gephardt’ s involvement in those boards and in the lives that we all led because he cared. And so, I was a senior partner at AEA Investors, which was one of John Whitehead’ s places, and it just gives me a huge amount of pleasure to let you know that this is a unique individual side-by-side with many of these awardees of the past: Robert Rubin, Janet Yellen, etc. This is a public servant of this country, and God bless him.
I never saw anybody in Congress or the Senate who ever disliked Dick Gephardt; even though he took different positions, he was never taking shots at them. And he was a man who all of us in the military looked up to enormously. We knew he was there for the US Constitution and was there as a member of Congress for the people of this country. When it comes to public service, they don’ t come better than Dick Gephardt.
Now, I want to conclude my comments by telling you about an old admiral friend of mine who was in his late 90s, and he said,“ Bill, I want you to remember something in your life.” He said,“ One of the great blessings that has come across my awareness in the last couple of years has been for men to reflect on their lives and reflect on those very few people who made a big difference in their lives, and be able
to tell them about it and to say to them,‘ I love you.’”
I want to tell you friends, as I look back on my life, and I’ ve been blessed to be in the military for a long time and a lot of time in business, I love Dick Gephardt. He’ s one of those handful of people who stands truly on top of the stack, and we’ re so honored to be here tonight to honor him.
RICHARD A. GEPHARDT
Former Democratic Leader, US House of Representatives
Thank you, Bill, and I love you. It’ s a great honor for me to be here tonight being honored with luminaries like Art Cashin and Peter Lynch. And I have to say something to Peter that I didn’ t get a chance to say to him earlier tonight. When you’ re in Congress, you don’ t make money, you’ re in it for service. When I got out of Congress, after I made a little bit of money, I think I had $ 5,000 in the bank. I decided I needed to figure out how to invest the money so I could make more money. And I talked to a lot of people and they said you’ ve got to be in the Magellan Fund. And I said, what’ s that? And they said, it’ s a Fidelity fund and you ought to put your money in there. And they have a fabulous record and they’ ve got this guy, Peter Lynch, who is an awesome investor on your behalf once you put even a dollar in the fund. So, Peter, I made money on the Magellan Fund. Thank you.
I am a big fan of this Museum, and as you heard tonight, it has played a vital role in educating Americans and especially young Americans on the crucial role that finance plays in our fabulous economic history. In the past 80 years, America has had the best economy of any country in the world, and it’ s not just a great economy for a few people; it’ s a great economy for all the people. Listen to these numbers. In 1950, the per capita annual income of Americans was $ 9,000. In 2023, annual per capita income was $ 81,000. No wonder that millions of people from all over the world are risking their lives and their families’ lives to get here, to be part of this incredible American economy. What are the elements that have allowed this to happen? I think there are four: democracy, freedom, rule of law and capitalism.
All four have to be present in order to have the economic performance that
6 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2025 | www. MoAF. org