Raymond F. DeVoe

1929 - 2014

Raymond F. DeVoe

AGE: 85 • Sea Girt

Raymond F. DeVoe, Wall Street analyst and author of "The DeVoe Report". Raymond F. DeVoe, Jr. of Sea Girt, the Wall Street financial analyst who brought nearly seven decades of insight and experience to the task of writing the newsletter "The DeVoe Report" and was a well-known advisor on financial markets, died on Sept. 27. He was 85. In 35 years of doing the weekly report, DeVoe was often sought after for his perspectives on the market by publications as diverse as the New York Times, Barron's, the Atlanta Journal Constitution the Sunday Times of London and Bloomburg News. He wrote articles for Barron's, the New York Times and Playboy magazine, among many others. In a 2011 interview with Tom Keene on Bloomberg Television's, "Surveillance Midday," Keene called him a "legend of Wall Street." DeVoe wrote the weekly "DeVoe Report" for 35 years and continued until August. The newsletter was known for DeVoe's original thinking on economics, his humor and his wide-ranging interests. He often discussed classic movies along with stocks. The financial website "Global Province," named The DeVoe Report "The Best Wall Street newsletter" in 2004. "Ray DeVoe has been around the track many times," the site said. "Somewhere he learned to write terribly well. So he essays well, not just about the market, but also about movies, Social Security, and the stock markets in Asia. No wonder he advises so many institutions: he has the ability not to bore his clients to death, like most market commentators." One example of DeVoe's unique perspective was his "Trivia Index," which tracked the price of "small-ticket" items like the cost of a haircut or a slice of pizza, which he compared to small piranha bites on people's income. Those small price increases end up having large effects and raising prices even further, DeVoe said. He was also credited with coining the "dead cat" analogy to describe a temporary market recovery. "If you threw a dead cat off a 50-story building," he said in a 1986 interview, "it might bounce when it hit the sidewalk. But don't confuse that bounce with renewed life. It is still a dead cat." Born on Sept. 12, 1929, DeVoe grew up in New York City, where 13 generations of DeVoes had lived. He was the oldest son of Raymond F. DeVoe, a Wall Street dealmaker and Madeleine Fagan DeVoe. His maternal grandfather was Lawrence Fagan, an Irish immigrant who owned the Fagan Iron Works in Hoboken and was once the mayor of Hoboken. DeVoe got his first job on Wall Street in 1947 when he had a summer job as a page boy at Spencer Task while training to be a specialist's clerk. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1950. After graduating, he attended the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School. He spent three and a half years in the Navy as a Lieut. JG during the Korean War and was posted in Europe aboard the U.S.S. Kula Gulf escort carrier in Naples, Italy. After leaving the Navy, he spent a year in commodities training where, he said, "I lost my shirt in both cocoa and potatoes." He began his long career as an analyst soon after when he joined Spencer Trask's Stock Department, where he did stock reports, industry studies, and statistical summaries. He would continue this work for more than 60 years - writing Spencer Trask's Market Bulletin and the firm's weekly Research Notes and Quarterly Review. He rose through the ranks at Spencer Trask becoming vice-president in 1967, director in 1969, and supervisory analyst in 1974 - passing four separate exams for the New York Stock Exchange. As Spencer Trask merged with a series of companies - finally becoming Loeb, Rhoades, Hornblower & Co., DeVoe recalled "I completed the circuit from wire house to small firm to very large firm. In less than one year, we went from a firm of 400 to 3,000 to 6,5000 without changing desks." He finally resigned after yet another merger in 1979. He began writing "The DeVoe report" that year as a market strategist for Bruns Nordeman, Rea & Co. Two years later, he moved to Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., as a market strategist, taking the newsletter with him. He remained at Legg Mason where he was a vice-president for 22 years until 2001. For more than 10 years, he began offering the report independently, writing and researching the four-page newsletter, which he still mailed to subscribers, including more than 100 Wall Street firms. In his long career, DeVoe rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous. He met President Ronald Reagan, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Soviet Union President Mikhail Gorbachev. Warren Buffett, a friend who used to play cards with DeVoe, quoted him in a 2011 shareholder letter. "We agree with investment writer Ray DeVoe's observation, 'More money has been lost reaching for yield than at the point of a gun,'" he wrote. A bon vivant, who loved to entertain with his wife Maureen, he enjoyed good wine and food. DeVoe had a large circle of friends who appreciated his graciousness, humor and modesty. He was known as "the Silver Fox" to his friends after growing prematurely gray in the 1970s. DeVoe was a devoted alumnus of Dartmouth, returning for homecoming games and alumni events every year. For the past year, he served as president of the Class of 1950, whose motto was, "Touch of Class." He was also actively involved in the Air Force Aid Society, serving as a Trustee and a Distinguished Counsellor for 35 years from 1977 until about 2012. In 1977, he received the Air Force's "Exceptional Service Award," the Air Force's highest honor for a civilian. In its commendation, the Air Force stated that "Mr. DeVoe's investment expertise enabled him to guide the Society's Finance Committee to unprecedented growth, producing the resources needed to grow programs directly benefitting thousands of Air Force members and families." DeVoe had a lifetime love of traveling. He was a voracious reader not only of financial magazines but also of science fiction and science. Working from home for the past decade, he was writing a book with the wry title, "Is There Intelligent Life on Wall Street." The oldest of five, DeVoe survived all of his siblings. His sister, Madelon DeVoe Talley, was a Wall Street investment manager and author. His other siblings were Lawrence, Richard, and Jacqueline DeVoe Durstine. DeVoe was married to the former Anne Fosbroke in 1956. She died in 1985. They had two children, Raymond F. DeVoe III (Syth) and Diana. He married the former Maureen McIsaac in 1986.

He is survived by his wife, Maureen; daughter, Diana DeVoe Mainzer and son-in-law Stephen Mainzer of New Canaan, CT; son, Syth and daughter-in-law Jeanne Jackson DeVoe; and two grandchildren, Raymond F. DeVoe IV and William G. DeVoe, of Princeton, NJ.

Relatives and friends are invited to attend the visitation on Thursday, October 2, 2014 from 2-4 & 7-9pm at the O'Brien Funeral Home, 2028 Hwy. 35 at New Bedford Rd., Wall. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered on Friday, October 3, 2014 at 9:30am at St. Mark's RC Church, 215 Crescent Parkway, Sea Girt, NJ, 08750. Kindly meet at the Church on Friday morning as there will not be a procession from the Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the DeVoe family requests donations be made to the Air Force Aid Society, 241 18th Street S., Suite 202, Arlington, Va., 22202, www.afas.org. Donation envelopes are available at the Funeral Home on Thursday. For further information or to offer condolences to the family please visit www.obrienfuneralhome.com