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:At the time of their marriage, John was a [[design engineer]] with [[Kemtron Corporation]] in [[Fresno]], a manufacturer of [[model railroad]] [[locomotives]] and accessories founded by [[Levon Kemalyan]]. John graduated January 1950 from the [http://www.cca.edu/ California College of the Arts] in [[Oakland, CA | Oakland]], with a [[Bachelor of Applied Arts]]. John passed away in 2000.
:At the time of their marriage, John was a [[design engineer]] with [[Kemtron Corporation]] in [[Fresno]], a manufacturer of [[model railroad]] [[locomotives]] and accessories founded by [[Levon Kemalyan]]. John graduated January 1950 from the [http://www.cca.edu/ California College of the Arts] in [[Oakland, CA | Oakland]], with a [[Bachelor of Applied Arts]]. John passed away in 2000.


=====Grandchildren=====
=====Survived by both grandchildren=====
:*David Anderson
:*David Anderson
:*Gail Anderson
:*Gail Anderson

Revision as of 18:17, 10 August 2006

David LeFevre Dodd (1895 - 1988) was a collegiate educator, financial analyst, author, American economist, and close colleague of Benjamin Graham (1894 - 1976) at Columbia University.

The Wall Street Crash of 1929 (Black Thursday) almost wiped out Graham, who had started teaching the year before at his alma mater, Columbia. The Crash inspired Graham to search for a more conservative, safer way to invest. Graham agreed to teach with the stipulation that someone take notes. Dodd, then a young instructor at Columbia, volunteered. Those transcriptions served as the basis for a book that galvanized the concept of Value Investing. The book was called "Security Analysis" (pub. 1934). This book, a thick one, became the Bible for Value Investors. After cooling off from irrational exuberance in the 90s, today, more than ever, Graham and Dodd's approach to Value Investing serves as a compass for legendary investors, one of whom is Warren Buffett, who attended Columbia University (MS Economics '51) specifically to study with the duo.

Editions of security analysis

  • 1st ed. (1934) Whittlesey House (the trade division of McGraw-Hill) - LCCN: 34023635
    • Black bound cover (1st printing) was printed by The Maple Press Co., York, PA, for a small distribution in the United States
    • Maroon bound cover (2nd printing) was published that same year for sale abroad
  • 2nd ed. (1940) McGraw-Hill - LCCN: 40013028
  • 3rd ed. (January 1, 1951) McGraw-Hill (last edition while Graham & Dodd were faculty members of Columbia) - LCCN: 2005270180
  • 4th ed. (1962) McGraw-Hill (last edition by Graham & Dodd) Sidney Cottle joins as coauthor - LCCN: 62017368
  • 3rd ed. reprint (May 1976) McGraw-Hill ISBN 0070239576
  • 5th ed. (January 1, 1988) McGraw-Hill (updated by Cottle, Murray, and Block) - ISBN 0070132356
  • reprint of orig. ed. (October 1, 1996) McGraw-Hill - ISBN 0070244960
  • reprint of orig. ed. (February 1, 1997) McGraw-Hill - ISBN 0070244979
  • 2nd ed. reprint (October 10, 2002) McGraw-Hill - ISBN 007141228X
  • 3rd ed. reprint (December 10, 2004) McGraw-Hill - ISBN 0071448209

Value investing

The phrases "Graham and Dodd," "value investing," "margin of safety," and "intrinsic value" are revered by value oriented practitioners. Despite the onset of modern portfolio theory (MPT) in the late 1950s – a theory that peaked throughout the 80s and even gained Nobel recognition in 1990 (co-laureates: Harry Markowitz, Merton Miller, William F. Sharpe) – Value Investing proved to be a formidable style that sharply defied MPT. The University of Chicago was at the center of MPT (see "quantitative analyst") while Columbia has been the Mecca for Value Investing for 7-1/2 decades. Many cracks in MPT are now well established, whereas the basics behind Graham & Dodd’s approach to Value Investing are as valid today as when they were first introduced.

Value Investors see securities as either priced correctly, under priced, or over priced. By contrast, MPT proponents insist that, by definition under the efficient market hypothesis, a realized price of a stock is the correct price. Value investor purists reject the usefulness of Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM), in part, because it wrongly extrapolates historical volatility as a proxy for risk. Ergo, value investors see MPT metrics -- such as standard deviation, beta (relative standard deviation), alpha (excess return), and the Sharpe ratio (risk adjusted return) -- as inadequate and even misleading.

Columbia resisted de-emphasizing Value Investing during the throes of the MPT renaissance, but the appeal of MPT seemed to be part of a larger movement, thrusting business education into higher echelons of academia. During about a 25-year period (1965-90), published investment management research and articles in leading journals were few. Shortly after the death of David Dodd in 1988, Professor Bruce C. Greenwald, a star professor at CBS, took a keen interest in Value Investing. He found the overwhelming success of Value investors difficult to dismiss. At the same time, reliable data that fortified Value Investing was solidifying, while MPT was showing some flaws. Professor Greenwald invigorated the academic aspects of what many in ivory towers erstwhile treated as a vocational discipline. As if everyone were realizing the success of Value Investing at the same time (a little EMH first-mover humor), wide popularity spread among academicians and MBA students not only at Columbia, but around the globe.

The long-term performance of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is a statistical three-sigma event unto itself. But, not including Buffett, the success of numerous other investment funds and practitioners who applied Value Investing theories is a statistical anomaly. (Statistical reference to the magnitude of success is an ironic metric since Value Investing ignores the use of sophisticated statistics of MPT). Greenwald overhauled and relaunched the Value Investing curriculum in spring 1994. Today, Value Investing enjoys broad appeal among academicians and investors around the world. Professor Greenwald is Robert Heilbrunn Professor of Finance and Asset Management and Finance and Economics and Director of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing.

Academic timeline

Honorary degree

Professional timeline

Vice Chairman Profit Sharing Plan of below companies (1960)

  • Criterion Insurance Company (part of GEICO)
  • Government Employees Insurance Company (GEICO)
  • Government Employees Life Insurance Company (now part of Legal & General Group Plc)
  • Government Employees Corporation (now part of GEICO)
  • Government Employees Variable Annuity Life Insurance Company
  • Government Employees Financial Corp. (part of GEICO)

Memberships

39 Claremont in 2006

Residence in the 1960s: 39 Claremont Avenue, New York City, (Morningside Heights, Columbia neighborhood)

Obituary

David Dodd died September 18, 1988, at the age of 93, of respiratory failure at Maine Medical Center, Portland, Maine.[1] At the time of his death, he had homes in Falmouth Foreside and Chebeague Island, ME. He was a Protestant. There was no funeral service. He was born August 23, 1895, in Berkeley County, WV, to David Henry Dodd and Mary Virginia Dodd. The name "LeFevre" was the maidenname of David LeFevre Dodd's paternal grandmother, Ann Eliza LeFevre (maiden name).

Predeceased by both parents

David Henry Dodd (b. Jan 20, 1855 - d. July 13, 1953) married Mary Virginia Dodd (nee Shaffer; b. Feb 22, 1857 - d. May 21, 1944) in 1892.[2] David Henry Dodd was a public school teacher, principal, superintendent of schools in Berkeley County.

Predeceased by first wife
  • Elise Firor Dodd (nee, Elise Marguerite Firor; b. Mar 22, 1898 - d. Jan 1981)
Survivied by second wife
  • The former Lillian Lane.
Survived by daughter and son-in-law
A daughter from his first marriage, Barbara Dodd Anderson (aka "Bobbie," nee Barbara LeFevre Dodd) of San Francisco; Barbara married John Schow Anderson August 21, 1958, at the Beach Haven Kynett (United Methodist Church) in New Jersey.[3] Barbara is a 1950 graduate of the George School in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; she received her bachelor's degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York and also a Master of Arts in 1956 from Teachers College Columbia University. Barbara is a benefactor of the Heilbrunn Center for Graham and Dodd Investing at Columbia Business School.[4]
At the time of their marriage, John was a design engineer with Kemtron Corporation in Fresno, a manufacturer of model railroad locomotives and accessories founded by Levon Kemalyan. John graduated January 1950 from the California College of the Arts in Oakland, with a Bachelor of Applied Arts. John passed away in 2000.
Survived by both grandchildren
  • David Anderson
  • Gail Anderson
Predeceased by two brothers and a sister
  • A brother, Donald Dodd.
  • A sister, (name unknown)

At the time of David Dodd's death, the editions of the book he coauthored, "Security Analysis," had sold over 250,000 copies.

"The four most dangerous words in the English language are 'This time it's different.'" - written by David Dodd in the late 1930s

Another book by David LeFevre Dodd

Dodd, David LeFevre, "Stock watering: the judicial valuation of property for stock-issue purposes" (January 1, 1930), Columbia University Press

Footnotes

  1. ^ Obituary, The New York Times, September 20, 1988
  2. ^ Obituary, David Henry Dodd, 98, The New York Times, July 16, 1953
  3. ^ Wedding Announcement, The New York Times, August 22, 1958
  4. ^ Straight to the Heart Of Value Investing, by Geraldine Fabrikant, The New York Times, June 11, 2000
  5. ^ Obituary, Asbury Park Press, January 4, 1975
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