William R. Salomon Dies at 100

By Daniel Huang 

William Rogers Salomon, who helped transform Salomon Brothers into an international banking powerhouse, died Sunday. He was 100 years old.

Mr. Salomon served the firm, which was founded by his father and two uncles four years before he was born, as managing partner from 1963 to 1978. Under his leadership, Salomon Brothers expanded beyond its origins as a bond-trader to become one of Wall Street's most prestigious investment banks.

Born and raised in New York City, Mr. Salomon attended Columbia Grammar School and Horace Mann, then skipped college for his high school sweetheart. The girl was Virginia Foster, who later became his wife, and passed in 2008 after a 71-year union. They had two children.

"We were inseparable," Mr. Salomon said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal earlier this year. "I wanted to get married. My father said, 'You're not getting married unless you have a job.'"

So Mr. Salomon joined his father's firm at 19, making partner in 1944 by the age of 30. Among his mentees over the years was a young Harvard Business School graduate named Michael Bloomberg, who went on to start Bloomberg LP, and John Gutfreund, who succeeded Mr. Salomon after he retired from the head position at the firm in 1978.

Salomon Brothers became a publicly traded corporation in 1981 after a merger with oil trader Phibro Corp. Brokered by Mr. Gutfreund, the deal upset Mr. Salomon, who had wished the firm would remain a private partnership.

In 1998, Travelers, a big insurance firm, acquired Salomon Brothers before itself joining Citicorp to form Citigroup. For many years, the bank provided Mr. Salomon with, among other things, an office, a driver, and a secretary. In an unexpected turn of events, his secretary would be convicted in 2013 of stealing $1.3 million during her 11 years at the firm.

A spokeswoman for Citigroup said Tuesday, "We deeply mourn the loss of William R. Salomon, who was instrumental in transforming Salomon Brothers from a bond trading house to an international investment bank. We remain grateful for his leadership and contributions and extend our deepest sympathies to his family."

Mr. Salomon died at his home in New York.

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