Roger Babson
| Roger W. Babson | |
|---|---|
Babson in 1918
|
|
| Born |
July 6, 1875 Gloucester, Massachusetts, USA |
| Died | March 5, 1967 (aged 91) Lake Wales, Florida, USA |
| Education | MIT (1898) |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, Businessman, Economist, Writer, Philanthropist |
| Known for | Business forecasting, founding of universities, predicting Wall Street Crash of 1929 |
| Political party | Prohibition Party |
| Spouse(s) | Grace Margaret Knight (m. 1900 - d. 1956) Nona M. Dougherty (m. 1957 - d. 1963) |
| Children | Edith Low Babson |
| Parent(s) | Nathaniel Babson and Ellen Starns |
Roger Ward Babson (July 6, 1875 in Gloucester, Massachusetts – March 5, 1967 in Lake Wales, Florida) was an American entrepreneur, economist and business theorist in the first half of the 20th century. He is best remembered for founding Babson College. He also founded Webber College, now Webber International University, in Babson Park, Florida, and the defunct Utopia College, in Eureka, Kansas.
Babson was born to Nathaniel Babson and his wife Ellen Stearns as part of the 10th generation of Babsons to live in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Roger attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for investment firms before founding Babson's Statistical Organization (1904), which analyzed stocks and business reports; it continues today as Babson-United, Inc..
On March 29, 1900 Babson married his first wife Grace Margaret Knight, who died in 1956. In 1957 he remarried to Nona M. Dougherty, who died in 1963. Babson died in 1967.
Babson's success as an investor was based on unorthodox views of the operation of markets. According to biographer John Mulkern, Babson attributed the business cycle "to Sir Isaac Newton's law of action and reaction.... (with a) pseudoscientific notion that gravity can be used to explain movement in the stock markets." His market forecasting techniques are expounded in articles in Traders World Magazine and the Gravity Research Foundation he founded.
While attending MIT he received a degree in Engineering. He lobbied the dean to include a business course, which resulted in a course known as "Business Engineering". Eventually the Business Engineering program was expanded and it is now seen as the forerunner of the MBA degree.
...
Wikipedia