Marriner Stoddard Eccles

Marriner Stoddard Eccles. . , Marriner Stoddard Eccles , September 9, 1890 - December 18, 1977 , Businessman. Banker. Philanthropist , , Marriner Stoddard Eccles stands among the most respected and admired leaders of Utah - an entrepreneur who profoundly influenced the business and economic life of his home state and the entire nation in the 20th century. A son of pioneering Utah industrialist David Eccles and his wife, Ellen Stoddard Eccles, he rose with keen intellect and entrepreneurial zeal to become an illustrious businessman and banker of historic dimension, playing a vital role in delivering the nation from the Great Depression and in leading the financial system through the upheavals of World War II. , , Born and raised in Logan, Utah, Eccles left home at age 19 to serve a mission in Scotland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having completed just three years of high school. That would be the sum total of his formal education. He was just 22 years old when the sudden death of his father in 1912 left him to care for his mother, eight younger siblings, and the family's vast business interests. He would succeed on all fronts, ultimately coming to run much of his father's business empire, and creating the First Security Corporation multi-state banking company in 1928. He went on to build many other successful business enterprises, including numerous banks, and at the time of the nation's financial crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, his keen mind and nerves of steel staved off financial disaster, with no depositor at any Eccles-led bank losing even one penny. , , Called upon by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve as Chairman of the Federal Reserve (1934-48), he crafted the nation's monetary policy and many keystones of the U.S. financial system that remain today, including a dramatically reformed Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), and the Federal Housing Act (FHA). In 1944, just before the end of World War II, Eccles helped craft agreements at the historic Bretton Woods Conference that created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), He remained on the Federal Reserve Board until 1951. He returned to the West and Utah to resume his successful career as a banker, businessman, and philanthropist, greatly expanding the scope and value of his family's business interests. Eccles also continued to advise the Federal government with his independent thought, wisdom, and foresight until his death in 1977 at age 87. , , Eccles and his wife May "Maysie" Campbell Young Eccles were the parents of four children, three of whom lived to adulthood: sons Campbell and John Eccles, and daughter Eleanore Eccles Steele. He was later married to Sarah "Sallie" Madison Glassie Eccles. , , Entrepeneur and Business Leader , "Feisty Utah Tycoon" , Banking . Construction . Lumber . Sugar . Mining . Hotels , , President and Chairman: First Security Corporation , Director and Chairman: Utah Construction/Utah International (merged with General Electrict in 1976) , President and Chairman: Amalgmated Sugar Company , President: Eccles Investment Company, First Security Corporation, First National Bank of Ogden, First Savings Bank of Ogden, Hyrum State Bank, Stoddard Lumber Company, Eccles Hotel Compnay, Sego Milk Products Company , Vice President and Director: Thatcher Brothers Banking Company , Director: Anderson Lumber Company, Utah-Idaho Centeral Railroad, Mountain States Implement Company, Utah Power and Light Company, Pet Milk Company, Lion Coal Company/Marcona Mine Company , , With a strong work ethic instilled by his parents, Marriner Eccles began working 10-our days in his father's lumber mill at age eight for 5 cents an hour. Having saved $100 in three years, he purchased one share of Oregon Lumber Company stock-and a lifelong capitalist was born. , , His father's sudden death in 1912 thrust the 22-year-old into the leadership of th Eccles family business emptire. By 1928, he had expanded it further by acquiring 28 banks in Utah, Idaho, and Wyoming and forming First SEcurity Corporation, the nation's first and oldest operating multi-state bank holding company. It would grown into one of the nation's finest banking organizations prior to its historic merger with Wells Fargo and Company in 2000. , , Eccles also led Utah Construction, which build railroads, operated mining concerns worldwide, and built 58 dams between 1916 and 1969. Utah Construction led the consortium of six builders that built the gigantic Hoover Dam in 1931, the largest Federal construction project. Utah Construction later known as Utah International, merged with General Electric in 1976 in the largest corporate merger seen up to that time. , , Statesmand and Public Servant , "Father of the Modern Federal Reserve" , Assistant Secretary, United States Treasury, 1934 , Author, Banking Act of 1935 , Governor, Federal Reserve Board, 1934-51 , Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, 1935-48 , Member, U.S. Delegation, Bretton Woods Conference, 1944 , , Marriner S. Eccles distinguished himself not only as a businessman, but also as a trusted advisor to several United States Presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. As chairman of the critically important Utah Committee on Relief, he saw the devastation of the Great Depression on his own businesses, his fellow Utahns, and his State. As he struggled to understand the economic collapse, he formed theories, considered radical at the time, as to how the role of the government should be shaped to help rectify the problems. , , As Chairman of the Federal Reserve, he crafted the nation's monetary policy and many keystones of the U.S. financial system chac remain coday, including a dramatically reformed Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States; the Federal Deposic Insurance Corporation (FDIC); and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). A 1936 cover story of Time magazine noted, "A good many people believe that Marriner Eccles is the only thing standing between the United States and disaster." , , Following World War II, he represented the Federal Reserve at the historic Bretton Woods Conference that crafted agreements creating the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and he was a supporter of the Marshall Plan for European Reconstruction. In 1951, Eccles precipitated the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord, a critical element of the Federal Reserve's Independence. , , Considered brilliant, though not without controversy. Eccles remained an invaluable advisor to the Federal government until his deach 1977 at the age of 87. Five years later, in 1982, Congress enacted the Garn-St. Germain Act, which named the Federal Reserve Washington D.C. headquarters the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building in his honor, and subsequent Federal Reserve chairmen have called him the "father of the modern Federal Reserve." , ,