The Pioneer Who Discovered Growth Stocks

Long before Jack Bogle, the father of index funds, there was T. Rowe Price, the father of growth investing. He and Bogle are probably the only two investment managers to popularize an entire theory of investing.

T. Rowe Price

Born March 16, 1898, T. Rowe Price was a chemist by training but a stock picker at heart.  While working at a brokerage he decided he wanted to sell advice, not stocks. In 1937 he opened his own investment counseling firm, a bold move in those times. Fee-based investment counsel was rare. The seeds of war were sprouting in Asia and in Europe. In the U.S. four years of painful recovery from the Great Depression had relapsed into a new recession.

Somehow, Price survived and prospered, propelled by his belief that he could outperform the market by selecting stocks whose earnings were growing faster than inflation and faster than the general economy.

After World War II ended, high wartime income tax rates lived on. Price's clients wanted to ease their tax burden by moving money into accounts for their children. (In those days Daddy's Little Taxpayers were entitled to their own low tax brackets.) To facilitate small accounts Price started a mutual fund, the T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Fund.

Brokers working on commission didn't sell the Growth Stock Fund. Investors had to buy shares: Send for a prospectus. Fill out the accompanying new-account form. Return it with a check to Price in Maryland. Nevertheless, the fund's performance led to phenomenal success. In the 1970's, when Jack Bogle decided to make his index fund no load, Price's accomplishment must have bolstered his belief that his index fund could flourish without the help of a commissioned sales force.

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Jack Bogle was a successful author and a beloved commentator on personal investing. If T. Rowe Price did TV interviews or authored op-eds, I must have missed them. He is said to have disliked public speaking. Thirty-six years after his death, his public image may be getting an overdue boost. Wiley is publishing a bio, T.  Rowe Price, the Man, the Company and the Investment Philosophy.