John Aloysius Coleman

Background

John Aloysius Coleman was born on December 24, 1901 in New York City, New York, United States. He was the son of Irish-American Catholics; his father was a policeman.

Education

He left high school at the age of fourteen to help support the family.

Career

He drifted to Wall Street, where he found work in 1916 as a page and then as a clerk at E. H. Stern and Company, a member firm of the New York Curb Market, an outdoor market on Broad Street that traded shares in companies not listed on the NYSE. It was the forerunner of the American Stock Exchange. This was a period when career options at the NYSE and its member firms were limited for young men of eastern European, southern European, or Irish ancestry. The most they might hope for was a senior clerkship after two decades or so of work. A few Curb Exchange brokers managed to make the jump to the NYSE, usually as representatives for commission houses. Promotion to specialists, the individuals who made markets for shares, standing ready to buy and sell from commission house representatives, was a rare occurrence. It was different at the Curb Exchange, however, which was dominated by eastern European Jews and Irish Catholics. By 1922 the Curb Exchange had moved indoors to a site on the west side of Trinity Church, and Stern and Company purchased a seat for Coleman. He performed well, and in 1924 became a partner and made the move to the NYSE, where he became its youngest specialist. Stern retired in 1928, and Coleman and Paul Adler, the second in command, reorganized the firm as Adler, Coleman and Company. Now in his late twenties, Coleman had a reputation as intelligent, honest, and hardworking. Uninterested in the clubby environment at the NYSE, he devoted much time to affairs of the Roman Catholic Church, attending Mass regularly and participating in charitable activities. In 1920, at the age of nineteen, he became a member of the Cardinal's Committee of the Laity, helping raise funds for the New York diocese; in 1934 he became its executive chairman. Prior to the stock market crash of 1929, investment bankers had been the dominant powers in the NYSE. They remained influential during the early 1930's, but as underwritings and related business dried up, their influence waned. This left a vacuum at the NYSE that was filled by the specialists, of whom Coleman was a rising star. In 1937 the NYSE established the Conway Commission to study possible changes in its organization. The following year it recommended a new management structure including a salaried president, a chairman selected from the membership, and increased responsibilities for the staff. The report was approved on March 17, 1938, the same day former chairman Richard Whitney, who represented banker control, was expelled on charges of embezzlement. The following June, William McChesney Martin was elected president; Coleman and other specialists were named to the board of governors, on which Coleman soon became a dominant force. The tasks before Martin, Coleman, and their supporters was to provide the exchange with a reputation for honesty and integrity, which they did forcefully. Coleman, who was on the floor each day, policed activities there with an iron fist. He became the man to see for specialists hoping to be assigned one of the few new issues coming to the floor. Should a specialist be negligent in his duties, Coleman would see to it that he lost companies for which he made markets. Between 1943 and 1947, Coleman was chairman of the NYSE. Even after stepping down, he was considered the most powerful force there. Adler, Coleman became one of the most powerful specialist units. By the late 1940's it was making markets for forty-seven stocks, including those of American Tobacco, Armour, Wilson, Liggett & Myers, International Minerals, Curtiss Wright, and General Public Service. Coleman had an unvarying schedule. He left his Park Avenue apartment at 7:00 A. M. , attended church services, and arrived at his office at 9:00 A. M. He was on the Exchange floor fifteen minutes later. After the 3:30 P. M. closing, he would return to the office for a few hours, then go home, have dinner, and attend to charitable and political activities. Coleman was appointed a papal chamberlain in 1957, and in 1966 Cardinal Spellman named a parochial high school in Kingston in his honor. He was still on the NYSE floor in the mid-1970's, although by then he had relinquished leadership at Adler, Coleman to his two sons, who had earlier entered the firm. He died in New York City.

Achievements

• Pope Pius XI appointed Coleman a Knight of St. Gregory the Great in 1937, and in 1940 he was named a Knight of Malta. Coleman was awarded the Johannes XXIII Peace and Humanitarian Medal by the Wall Street Synagogue.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Religion and Nationalism (CONCILIUM)

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  Golf

Connections

In 1930, Coleman married Ann Marie Meehan; they had three children.

Spouse:

Ann Marie Meehan