Harry J. Lister

Harry J. Lister, who in the 1970s helped revamp regulations around retirement savings and spent his 70s and 80s enjoying his own retirement, died June 27 at his home in Ashburn, Virginia. He was 89 years old.

A native of Westwood, New Jersey, and a resident of Reston, Virginia, for nearly 50 years, he spent his entire career in investment management - first as an officer with the Wall Street firm Calvin Bullock, Ltd., in Manhattan, then for more than three decades with Washington Management Corp., a subsidiary of Johnston, Lemon Group in Washington, D.C.

Lister rose to become president, CEO and director of Washington Management Corp. and four mutual funds, Washington Mutual Investors Fund, The Growth Fund of Washington, The Tax-Exempt Fund of Maryland and The Tax-Exempt Fund of Virginia, serving as a founding director of the latter three. He retired from Washington Management Corp. in 2004.

In his 2008 book The Rise of Mutual Funds: An Insider's View, Matthew P. Fink, former longtime president of the Investment Company Institute, recounted the role Lister played in the revision of retirement investment regulations in the mid-1970s.

As congressional committees were set to begin consideration of pension reform legislation that eventually became the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974, Lister was one of a small number of experts invited by ICI to serve on an ad hoc committee to develop the mutual fund industry's slate of recommendations.

"ERISA enacted the mutual fund industry's entire wish list and laid the foundation for funds' future explosive growth in the retirement market," Fink wrote.

During his career Lister also served as chairman of the board of regents of the College for Financial Planning, chairman of the pension committee and education foundation of the Investment Company Institute, a consultant to Capital Research and Management Company and a member of the board of advisors of George Washington's Mount Vernon. He was an emeritus member of The University Club of Washington, D.C., and a former member of the Metropolitan Club of Washington.

In a tribute written at the time of Lister's retirement in 2004, Fink reiterated that Lister had "helped lay the groundwork for the future growth of all types of self-directed retirement plans and the now-widespread use of mutual funds by investors saving for retirement."

Lister's own book, Your Guide to IRAs and 14 Other Retirement Plans, was published in 1986.

Harry J. Lister was born January 27, 1936, the eldest child of Harry Lister, a Westwood police officer, and Arline Pinera Lister. He was a graduate of Westwood Regional High School and Lehigh University and was a former member of the Westwood Planning and Zoning boards and a former member of the Bergen County (New Jersey) American Red Cross Chapter board of directors. He was a member of the Church of St. Andrew Catholic community in Westwood, where he served as an altar boy and married the former Erika Englisch on September 3, 1960. He was also a longtime member of the St. John Neumann Catholic community in Reston, Virginia. He was predeceased by his parents, his sister, Nancy Ann Lister, and his brother, Jay Shelford Lister.

While Lister's professional accomplishments were numerous and impressive, his greatest legacy is the family he built with Erika, his wife of 64 years. He is survived by Erika, their children Harry J. Lister Jr. (Valerie) of Reston, Virginia; Karen P. Lawson (Robert) of Sterling, Virginia; Leslie M. Jeans (James) of Reston; Andrea A. Lytle (Alan) of Herndon, Virginia; and Michael P. Lister (Heather) of St. Augustine, Florida; 12 beloved grandchildren (Robert Fidler, Ryan Jeans, Robert, Sean and Justin Lawson, Jessica and Harrison Lister, William and Emerson Lister, Nicholas and Allison Lytle and Drew Lyton) and their growing families - all of whom admired, respected and most of all loved their Opi.

A celebration of life will be held later this summer. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the Harry and Erika Lister Scholarship Fund at Lehigh University, 27 Memorial Drive West, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 18015, or to Capital Caring Health at capitalcaring.org.