Early Career, DuPont, General Motors
Young took a job as a powder-cutter at the E. I. DuPont gunpowder plant at Carneys Point, New Jersey. On April 27, 1916, he married Anita Ten Eyck O'Keeffe, sister of Georgia O'Keeffe. They had one daughter, Eleanor "Cookie" Young, who became one of the much-publicized "Glamour Debutantes" of the Great Depression-era.
At DuPont, Young worked his way up to the treasurer's office, where he learned much about finance and advertising. By 1920, he had left DuPont and speculated in securities for a short time.
Young joined General Motors (GM) in 1922 and was made assistant treasurer in 1928. He soon became associated with GM head John J. Raskob, and left GM to handle Raskob's finances, when Raskob, who though a former Republican had been chairman of the Democratic National Committee, took a sabbatical to manage Al Smith's presidential campaign against Herbert C. Hoover.
Early in 1929 Raskob vehemently disagreed with Young's predictions of a stock market crash, and the two men parted company. Subsequently, Young netted a fortune selling stocks short of their earlier value.
Read more about this topic: Robert R. Young
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