Roger Babson

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Roger Ward Babson (July 6, 1875 – March 5, 1967), remembered today largely for founding Babson College in Massachusetts, was an entrepreneur and business theorist in the first half of the 20th Century. He also founded Webber College, now Webber International University, in Babson Park, Florida, and the defunct Utopia College, in Eureka, Kansas.

He was born to Nathaniel Babson and his wife Ellen Stearns as part of the 10th generation of Babsons to live in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Roger attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for investment firms before founding, in 1904, Babson's Statistical Organization, which analyzed stocks and business reports. It continues today as Babson-United, Inc.^[1].

On March 29, 1900 , Babson was first married to Grace Margaret Knight.

According to biographer John Mulkern, Babson attributed the business cycle

to Sir Isaac Newton's law of action and reaction.... His pseudoscientific notion, that the laws of physics account for every rise and ebb in the economy, had no more validity than [astrology or alchemy]. But just as astrology gave birth to astronomy and alchemy to chemistry, so, too, did Babson's efforts to explain the economic cycle... lead to the economic breakthrough that revolutionized the business of economic forecasting.^[2]

On September 5th, 1929, he gave a speech saying "Sooner or later a crash is coming, and it may be terrific". Later that day the stock market declined by about 3%. This became known as the "Babson Break". The Great Depression soon followed.

He was the Prohibition Party's candidate for President of the United States in 1940. Election was won by incumbent President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the Democratic Party. Babson was surpassed by two other unsuccessful candidates:

Wendell Lewis Willkie of the Republican Party.
Norman Mattoon Thomas of the Socialist Party of America.

Babson also had a quirky side, most notably in his founding of the Gravity Research Foundation in 1948.^[3] The Foundation established a research facility in the town of New Boston, New Hampshire after Babson determined that this location was far enough away from the city of Boston, Massachusetts to survive a nuclear attack.

Babson was interested in the history of an abandoned settlement in Gloucester known as Dogtown. To provide charitable assistance to unemployed stonecutters in Gloucester during the Great Depression, Babson commissioned them to carve inspirational inscriptions on approximately two dozen boulders in the surrounding area Dogtown Common. The Babson Boulder Trail exists today as a well-known hiking and mountain-biking trail. The inscriptions are clearly visible. The boulders are scattered, not all are on the trail, and not all of the inscriptions face it, making finding them something of a challenge. Samples of some of the two dozen inscriptions include: HELP MOTHER; SPIRITUAL POWER; GET A JOB; KEEP OUT OF DEBT; and LOYALTY.^[4]^[5]

He became a widower in 1956. He was later remarried to Nona M. Dougherty, who died in 1963.

[edit] References

^ Babson-United, Inc.. Babson-United. Babson-United, Inc.. Retrieved on 2007-05-22.: A Short History of Roger L. Babson's firm
^ John Mulkern (1994). Continuity and Change: Babson College, 1919-1994. Babson College Archives and Special Collections. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.
^ Jon Mooallem (2007, October). A curious attraction. Harper's Magazine, 315(1889), pp. 84-91.
^ Eric Bickernicks. The Babson Boulders. Eric Bickernicks. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.: Photos of boulders, downloadable PDF map of boulders with GPS coordinates, image of Roger Babson
^ The Babson Boulders at Dogtown. Cape Ann Web. Retrieved on 2006-09-25.