TAKING STOCK, Vol. 2, No. 3,
PUBLISHED PERIODICALLY BY THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION
March 1974
THIS IS A MEMORIAL WEBSITE. THE INFORMATION ON THIS PAGE IS QUOTED DIRECTLY FROM THE SEC'S "TAKING STOCK" from The Securities and Exchange Commission Historical Society. SEE THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ENTIRE ISSUE.

CHAIRMAN GARRETT
SEC PERSONIFIED AND MORE

"On August 6, 1973, Ray Garrett, Jr., 53, a native of Chicago, returned to the Commission to become its nineteenth chairman. The staff is pleased to have one of its own at the helm again. As some of us remember, Mr. Garrett served on the staff as Director of Corporate Regulation some fifteen years ago (from 1954-1958). At that time Mr. Garrett, a 1941 graduate of Yale and a 1949 graduate of Harvard Law School (LL.D.), had come to the Commission as a former law professor, first as a teaching fellow at Harvard Law School, then as Assistant Professor of Law at New York University and finally as a visiting lecturer at Northwestern University of Law [sic]. He left the Commission in 1958 to become a partner in the Chicago law firm of Gardner, Carton, Douglas, Children, [sic] and Waud. In addition to the his duties as SEC chairman, Mr. Garrett chairs the Advisory Committee for the Corporate Department Financing Project of the American Bar Foundation, is a member of the Board of Editors of the American Bar Association Journal and is consultant to the "Reporter" for Codification of the Federal Securities Laws Project of the American Law Institute.

"Still a resident of Illinois, chairman Garrett commutes -- at his own expense -- to his home in Winnetka every Friday. There are roots in Winnetka, the 11-room house on Myrtle Street three blocks from Lake Michigan, his 80-year old mother in Evanston, and his wife Virginia's job, as a 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. secretary with an architectural firm -- a slice of independence she's so proud of. He met Virginia (Hale) on a blind date in Austin, where he was in the Army in 1943, and married her three months later. Children followed, and the couple now has four: twin daughters, 29, another daughter, 23, and a son, 19.

"Chairman Garrett, to all his friends in Winnetka, is known as one of the best dancers in Chasse, a dance club in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. He also plays the trumpet to the delighted displeasure of some guests. He has a photographic memory -- a facility that never ceases to amaze Virginia; in one conversation not long ago, he unhesitatingly recalled the names and reigns of the kings of France.

"We are proud and happy to have Mr. Garrett back at the SEC as chairman of as Manny Cohen was quoted as saying, 'the strongest Commission that I can recall.' On the day of the confirmation hearing for both Mr. Garrett and Mr. Sommer, William Proxmire said 'These are two of the best nominations I have seen.'

"Mr. Garrett, as Mr. Cohen and others see him, is an issue-oriented administrator whose developing management style calls for tuning in in a low voltage kind of way and seeing to it that everything he does advances the Commission's current thrust. Mr. Garrett says he would like to be remembered as being 'a good effective, honest thoughtful chairman, who did more good than harm.'"

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