Raymond Adams "Chip" Mason

Raymond Adams Mason, or "Chip" as colleagues and friends referred to him, passed away peacefully amongst family members on Friday, August 22, 2025, at the age of 88 years old in Naples, FL.

Chip came from humble beginnings, born in Lynchburg, Virginia, on September 28, 1936. He eventually moved and settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he spent the vast majority of his childhood.

Chip was raised in an era that reinforced the importance of hard work, starting young, and that consistency, integrity, and doing the right thing, even when nobody is looking, yielded the best results.

As a child, Chip would work the paper routes of his neighborhood on his bike, and at only 7 years of age, he faced losing his father.

It was this adversity and fortitude that would stick with him going forward, eventually instilling in him the qualities that made him one of the foremost leaders in the financial services industry.

After attending William & Mary University, graduating in 1959, it would be at the ripe old age of 25, where Chip would set out on his own to "make his mark on the world".

In 1962, in Newport News, Virginia, Chip started Mason & Co., a small brokerage firm, with some of his William & Mary colleagues, one ticker tape machine, and some desks.

The firm, from its inception, was built on the principles that shaped him into the business leader he would ultimately become: one known for his integrity, vision, and hard work.

Eventually merging with Legg and Company in Baltimore, Chip would go on to create Legg Mason and relocate the firm to Baltimore, Maryland, creating one of the most successful brokerage and asset management firms in the world. Along the way, Chip completed an initial public offering of his Company, as well as several subsidiary acquisitions.

In 2005, Legg Mason ranked in the top five globally with the expansion of the Citigroup acquisition and the transformation into an asset manager. Upon his departure from Legg Mason, the firm would have had $830 billion in assets under management.

Chip was involved in a multitude of civic endeavors to improve the state and city, which he headquartered his Company and called home. He was deeply involved with his alma mater, William & Mary College, where the college named its business school the Raymond A. Mason School of Business.

Chip received honorary doctorates from Johns Hopkins University, William & Mary College, Loyola University and Mt. St. Mary's College.

He served as chair of Johns Hopkins University, the National Securities Association of Securities Dealers, the Securities Industry Association, the Maryland Business Rountable for Education, the Regional Firms Committee, New York Stock Exchange, Partners in Excellence and the Sellinger School of Business, Loyola University.

On a spiritual level, Chip was a devout Catholic, and those who knew him well knew he never missed the opportunity to attend Sunday morning Mass, wherever he was at the time.

He also cared deeply for his family, spending most Sunday nights cooking a wonderful dinner with everyone at the table. It was his way of finishing the week on a high note. He enjoyed cooking and gardening.

His work ethic was unmatched. Chip could often be found working into the late-night hours, crunching numbers repeatedly, to make sure he understood them better than anyone else, especially the analyst who would be rating his stock price. His signature practice was going over the numbers more than once on a yellow legal pad with his prideful Legg Mason embossed calculator.

His civic endeavors, as mentioned, were many, including the United Way of Central Maryland, Catholic Charities, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the U.S. National Aquarium.

In his later years, what many might have called "retirement," Chip was still hard at work. Whether advising his children on their various businesses or making investments himself, his mind was still sharp, and his nose always to the grindstone.

He still made efforts to keep an eye on his beloved Orioles baseball team, read the newspaper daily, watched the markets closely, continued to cook, was a master of the card game solitaire, and generally enjoyed the view of the water from his Florida home.

One of his greatest legacies, which summed up Chip's approach to life, was the saying: "No Chalk on Your Shoes". It was the idea that, like any game or life, everything is played inside the lines; if you had chalk on your shoes, it meant you were either playing out of bounds or flirting with the edges.

There is no doubt that, despite his vision, entrepreneurship, and success, Chip leaves behind a blueprint for living life with integrity.

His greatest sayings were many, but four truly come to mind, to which his family so aptly called "Chip'isms":

1. Be totally honest

2. Treat everyone with respect

3. Give your best every day

4. If your actions were in tomorrow's paper, how would you feel?

Chip is survived by his loving wife, Rand Riviere Mason of 39 years, his daughters, Paige Mason, Pamela Mason, and Morgan Mason Downey (wife of Will Downey), as well as his sons, Carter Mason (husband to Shelley Austin Mason), Hayward Howard (husband to Katie Shannon Howard), and Pike Howard (husband to Cecile Stumm Howard). He is also survived by his grandchildren, London Littleton, Suzie Littleton, Mason D'Aleo, Austin Mason, Maizi Mason, Blake Howard, Walker Howard, Pike Howard, Hayes Howard, Emma Howard, and a new baby girl on the way!

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, September 11th, at 11:00 a.m. at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, with a celebration of life to follow at the Baltimore Country Club, Roland Park Campus, immediately after the service. In place of flowers, if you feel so inclined, donations can be made to the Partners In Excellence Scholarship Program, which Chip helped found with the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

"The Partners In Excellence Scholarship program addresses this belief by providing tuition assistance funding to low- and very low-income families who wish to send their children to a Catholic school in Baltimore City. Grants are awarded annually, based on need and without regard to race, gender, or creed."

www.pieschools.org