By Daniel Huang
William Rogers Salomon, who helped transform Salomon Brothers
into an international banking powerhouse, died Sunday. He was 100
years old.
Mr. Salomon served the firm, which was founded by his father and
two uncles four years before he was born, as managing partner from
1963 to 1978. Under his leadership, Salomon Brothers expanded
beyond its origins as a bond-trader to become one of Wall Street's
most prestigious investment banks.
Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Salomon attended Columbia
Grammar School and Horace Mann, then skipped college for his high
school sweetheart. The girl was Virginia Foster, who later became
his wife, and passed in 2008 after a 71-year union. They had two
children.
"We were inseparable," Mr. Salomon said in an interview with The
Wall Street Journal earlier this year. "I wanted to get married. My
father said, 'You're not getting married unless you have a
job.'"
So Mr. Salomon joined his father's firm at 19, making partner in
1944 by the age of 30. Among his mentees over the years was a young
Harvard Business School graduate named Michael Bloomberg, who went
on to start Bloomberg LP, and John Gutfreund, who succeeded Mr.
Salomon after he retired from the head position at the firm in
1978.
Salomon Brothers became a publicly traded corporation in 1981
after a merger with oil trader Phibro Corp. Brokered by Mr.
Gutfreund, the deal upset Mr. Salomon, who had wished the firm
would remain a private partnership.
In 1998, Travelers, a big insurance firm, acquired Salomon
Brothers before itself joining Citicorp to form Citigroup. For many
years, the bank provided Mr. Salomon with, among other things, an
office, a driver, and a secretary. In an unexpected turn of events,
his secretary would be convicted in 2013 of stealing $1.3 million
during her 11 years at the firm.
A spokeswoman for Citigroup said Tuesday, "We deeply mourn the
loss of William R. Salomon, who was instrumental in transforming
Salomon Brothers from a bond trading house to an international
investment bank. We remain grateful for his leadership and
contributions and extend our deepest sympathies to his family."
Mr. Salomon died at his home in New York.
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