William McChesney Martin - Early Life

Early Life

William McChesney Martin, Jr., was born to William McChesney Martin and Rebecca Woods. Martin's connection to the Federal Reserve was forged through his family heritage. In 1913, Martin's father was summoned by President Woodrow Wilson and Senator Carter Glass to help write the Federal Reserve Act that would establish the Federal Reserve System on December 23 that same year. His father later served as governor and then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Martin was a graduate of Yale University, where his formal education was in English and Latin rather than finance. However, he still maintained an intense interest in business through his father. His first job after graduation was at the St. Louis brokerage firm of A. G. Edwards & Sons, where he became a full partner after only two years. From there, Martin's rapid rise in the financial world landed him in 1931 a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, just two years after the stock market crash at the outset of the Great Depression. Martin pursued graduate study in economics at Columbia University from 1931 to 1937; however, he did not receive a degree. During the early part of that decade, Martin's work towards increasing regulation of the stock market led to his election to the exchange's board of governors in 1935. There, he worked with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to reestablish confidence in the stock market and prevent future crashes. He eventually became president of the New York Stock Exchange at age 31, leading newspapers to label him the "boy wonder of Wall Street." Like his tenure as governor on the exchange, Martin's presidency focused on cooperating with the SEC to increase regulation of the exchange.

During World War II, Martin was drafted from the Exchange into the U.S. Army. There he supervised the disposal of raw materials on the Munitions Allocation Board. He was also a liaison between the Army and Congress and the supervisor of the lend-lease program with the Soviet Union.