This is Wall Street         by: Bart Ward

Last week Wall Street lost a long-standing giant who spent most of his career staying out of the limelight. Peter Maximus Kennedy, formerly of Rye, New York, passed away on February 11th. 

It was during Wall Street's "Paperwork Crunch" of the late 1960s that Kennedy was serving as Chairman and CEO of the historic Wall Street firm of Dominick & Dominick (D&D). When Kennedy took over D&D, "the street" faced contractive pressures and the money center banks' almost unlimited access to capital were permitting them to move quite rapidly into many areas that were once the exclusive territory of the great Wall Street houses.

At this time, when the likes of McDonnell & Company, Dempsey-Tegeler, Hayden, Stone & Co., F.I. duPont, Glore Forgan & Co., Goodbody & Co. and many others were on the ropes, Kennedy dug down deep, retrenched, and saved D&D. A firm, which stands today dating to 1870. He would do this once again in '73 as D&D and "the street" were back in challenging times. Kennedy eventually purchased controlling interest in Dominick.

During the mid seventies, Kennedy bought Drexel Heritage Furnishings and successfully sold it in the mid-eighties along with other holdings. Also in the '80s, Kennedy founded Eighteen Seventy Corporation. The family owned firm "controls Ferguson Copeland and Guy Chaddock," which produce high quality furniture. Dominick Company AG, a private Zurich bank, is also part of 1870 along with other assets including a ½ million-acre cattle ranch in Oregon.

As to Dominick, it has a long and storied history. When the first Wall Street Journal was printed in 1889, D&D was one of two companies that are still in existence today, that placed ads on its front page. The other was Sears, Roebuck & Co. D&D for many years held the title as "the oldest continuing member of the NYSE" and had many partners that resided on the board of governors of the Exchange. By the '50s D&D had developed a strong "back office" reputation, and served a distinguished clientele. Among other things, Dominick has had a prestigious line of partners through its many years in investment banking, corporate finance, securities execution, research, trading and asset management. 

Kennedy was a '44 graduate of Yale. He went on to the Army Air Force, where he was sent to the University of Chicago and Harvard, and then was assigned to an army base in Great Falls, MT. After his service in the army he worked for his father's mortgage banking business while earning his law degree at night at the U. of Conn. Then in '48, he started working for Shell Oil before finding his way to D&D, eventually rising to partner. It was here that he would find his final career home as a Wall Street executive.

In a Wall Street world today where we are short on integrity, diligence and character, Kennedy was not. For his part, he was hardworking, committed, conservative and gave his time to many of this country's finest companies through service on their boards.  He was not the type that sought to be listed in the who's who of whatever publication of the week touting who is the richest, biggest or top dog of whatever. In fact, he was the opposite of the typical egotistical "Wall Streeter" that has been so embarrassed by the hubris and excess of our time. He is a reminder to us all that with the title of a great man comes the territory of determination, straightforwardness, integrity and solid reputation through one's action. This cannot be substituted with appearances that lead to self-aggrandizement, opportunism, and ruthlessness.

So in final, I toast one to Peter Kennedy: "If you're enough lucky to be Irish… You're lucky enough!"

Quote of the Week: " Senator Untermyer:  Is not commercial credit based primarily upon money or property?

JP Morgan: No, sir, the first thing is character."