To: Paul Senior who wrote (4204 ) 6/1/1998 12:45:00 AM From: Paul Senior Read Replies (4) | Respond to
Aside: Just want to acknowledge the passing of mutual fund pioneer and value investor, Philip Carret last week at age 101. Actually a remarkable fellow IMO. Of course over the years he was interviewed because of his longevity (which apparently runs in his family - his mother told stories of about hearing reports of Civil war battles.) The family had its ups and downs (chronicled briefly in one of Mr. Carret's books, "A Money Mind at Ninety".) I've got a March 1986 article about Wall Street's elder statesmen which says of the then 89 year-old Mr. Carret, that he "still logs full workweeks plus three hours on Saturdays to try to spot good stock buys." He was a buy and hold guy it seems to me. Many articles written about his Greif Brothers holdings -- I often wondered what would have happened if he bought MRK or LLY or BMY in 1947 (or whenever he started his Greif position). He, like many people on this thread, believed management was crucial. "He insists on knowing a company's management personally." He liked companies he could understand (not tech stocks!), was attracted to companies with unbroken (or almost unbroken) 10 year record of earnings increases, and preferred debt-free companies - leaders in their fields - with stable management.
