author
b. 1866
A longtime San Francisco banker, he brought a practical insider’s view to questions about money, business, and moral responsibility. His best-known book, published in 1918, asks whether the pursuit of profit can serve both personal success and the public good.
Born in San Francisco on February 21, 1866, he spent most of his working life in finance. A contemporary San Francisco biographical sketch says he joined Wells Fargo Bank in 1883 after earlier work with a stock-brokerage firm, and later rose through the bank’s ranks to become president of Wells Fargo Bank & Union Trust Company in 1920.
He is best remembered as the author of Creating Capital: Money-making as an Aim in Business, published by Houghton Mifflin in 1918 as part of the Barbara Weinstock lecture series at the University of California. The book explores a theme that still feels current: whether the drive to make money can be matched with ethical standards, thrift, and a sense of duty to society.
Reliable source material on his personal life is fairly limited, so most surviving attention centers on his banking career and that one notable work. Even so, his writing stands out for trying to connect everyday business ambition with larger moral questions in a clear, direct way.