Essex County Chronicles
While the North Shore has produced many men and women who have achieved greatness in their chosen fields, it's hard to find one as brilliant and productive as Gloucester's Roger Babson (1875-1967).
A 10th-generation Gloucesterite, Babson was a true visionary. Early on in his career, he discovered the writings of the great scientist Isaac Newton. He was particularly impressed by Newton's third law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This principle would become the guiding force in his life and the basis for his view of economics.
Babson and his wife, Grace, built a sizable collection of books by the scientist, and, inspired by Newton, created the Gravity Research Foundation in 1948 dedicated to the creation of technology that could provide renewable energy sources. Babson even titled his autobiography "Actions and Reactions."
An always forward-looking man, and a relentless advocate of change and growth at the personal and institutional levels, Babson wrote books on the future of railroads, the working class, churches and South America. His ability to forecast future economic trends made him an enormous fortune (at the time of his death in 1967, he is believed to have been worth nearly $50 million) and led him to abandon the stock market before the devastating crash of 1929.
Trained as an engineer, Babson had left the field for a career in investment banking at the age of 23. In 1904, he started a clearinghouse that gathered and disseminated valuable information for investors. Known eventually as the Babson Report, his newsletter was a standard in the industry for nearly a century. Always willing to share his knowledge and vision, he also wrote columns on economics and investing for The New York Times and other major publications.
Beginning in 1908, Babson began offering correspondence courses in selling bonds, economics, finance and distribution. In 1919, he opened what is now Babson College in his Wellesley home. According to the college's Web site, the curriculum was dedicated to "practical economics, financial management, business psychology and personal efficiency." There were no liberal arts courses, and the instructors were drawn from the world of business.
Also according to the Web site, "Students kept regular business hours, punching in and out on a time clock." They had assigned office desks and personal secretaries to type their assignments.
Babson later opened two other business schools: Webber College in Babson Park, Fla., in 1927 for women and, in 1946, the no longer extant Roger Babson Utopia College, in Eureka, Kan.
All of these schools reflected the personal values of their founder, among them integrity, imagination and self-control.
Only through the ethical conduct of business, claimed Babson, could real financial success be achieved.
His own strong moral and religious background led Babson to invest in industries that would be of benefit to humankind, including fire equipment and personal health and hygiene products. It also led him to run for president of the United States on the National Prohibition Party ticket in 1940 (he received approximately 59,500 votes, finishing well behind Franklin Roosevelt and Wendell Willkie) and to work to improve the moral state of American Congregational churches in the late 1930s.
While he moved from Gloucester when he was 25, Babson never forgot his roots. In memory of his father, he donated more than 1,100 acres of land near the present-day Blackburn Industrial Park to the city. That land, part of Dogtown, is now the Babson Reservoir. The philanthropist also hired a stonecutter to carve into rocks sprinkled around the Dogtown woods admonitions like "Get a Job," "Help Mother" and "Never Try, Never Win."
Babson also bought a commercial block on Main Street in Gloucester, and there he opened a library specifically designed to meet the needs of pregnant women, which was dedicated to his ancestor Isabel, a midwife.
Another of Babson's altruistic ventures, the Open Church, was headquartered in his own birthplace on Middle Street.
Babson's idea was that churches should be open at all times for private worship, and volunteers were recruited to keep the doors open and to provide security.
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Jim McAllister of Salem writes a weekly column on the region's history. Contact him at jim@nii.net.
