Francis I. duPont & Co. Genealogy: Part XVII

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Walston & Co., Inc., Continued

Death of the Founder (1964)

Walston & Co., Inc. suffered a terrible blow on May 5, 1964, when its founder, Vernon Walston, committed suicide at his office at 72 Wall Street. On his way to work that morning, he had told his chauffeur, Gustav Puigdollers, that he was going to kill himself. When they got to the office, Puigdollers went to call Walston's wife. Walston was a big-game hunter and his office was full of trophies from his hunting trips and a double barreled shotgun. Walston went into his office, took the shotgun and shot himself through the mouth.

No note was left, but his associated noted that Walston has been looking "despondent" and speaking "incoherently." According to The New York Times, the day before Walston killed himself, he had a telephone interview with a Times reporter where, "speaking in an agitated voice, he expressed great dissatisfaction with the amount of stock the Walston firm was allocated as a prospective underwriter for the Communications Satellite Corporation," known as COMSAT, which was the "first enterprise in space." (The COMSAT IPO was the largest of its kind since the Ford Motor Company IPO in 1956.) Walston told the reporter that the firm was withdrawing as an underwriter from the offering because of his unhappiness with the number of shares his firm was given. He said, "I didn't go to college and it's the business of the old college tie that decides how many shares a firm gets in this COMSAT offering."

COMSAT office in Washington, DC, ca. 1980. (Image Courtesy Library of Congress)

Given that a founder's suicide can have an extremely negative impact on the health of a firm, the firm had to make an announcement and initiated an audit, which determined that the firm had a net worth of about $24 million with assets of over $188 million. Charles M. Peltason, a Walston & Co. vice president (St. Louis) stated, "Walston and Co. will continue to serve the public as previously." The firm also made assurances that the management, including Vernon's two sons, would "carry on the business in the Walston tradition with the Walston family capital continuing to remain in the firm."

Vernon Walston's position as chairman of the board of the executive committee was taken over by Daniel J. Cullen, who was the executive vice president based in San Francisco. Before joining the firm, he had worked at H.R. Baker & Co., the California firm that was taken over by Walston & Co. in 1945. Glenn Miller, senior vice president, assumed leadership of Walston's Midwest operations. He had joined the firm as a result of the 1963 merger with his firm, Cruttenden, Podesta & Miller, a Chicago house. William D. Fleming, a California native, became president. Fleming had joined Walston, Hoffman & Goodman in 1945 after starting his career as a clerk at Blyth & Co. in 1925.

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