Financial Innovator Philip L. Carret '17 Dies at 101

Philip L. Carret '17 died last Thursday after more than three quarters of a century at the forefront of the investment industry.

Carret, who died at the age of 101 while recovering from hip surgery, developed the "value" style of investing. As manager of the Pioneer Fund, which he founded in 1928, Carret bought shares of companies with strong financial profiles and held them for years, eventually turning a hefty profit.

The mutual fund evolved from an investment pool of $25,000 that Carret managed for friends and family.

Carret also authored several investment books, including Buying a Bond, The Art of Speculation and most recently, A Money Mind at Ninety.

According to his son, Carret appreciated the influence he could exercise by controlling money.

For example, he invested in Howe Caverns, an upstate New York geographical site, because he appreciated the outdoors and was interested in preservation.

In public, Carret was renowned for his financial innovation and accomplishment. The Qualities that made him a success--vigor and enthusiasm--also shaped his personal life.

"He was very involved in a great many different things," said his son Donald Carret '50.

According to Donald Carret, his father loved to travel and even went to Antarctica in the early 1990s and "had conversations with penguins while he was ashore." During the course of his life, Carret travelled to 20 total eclipses.

Carret took risks outside the stock markets: he joined the Army Signal Corps, a precursor to the Air Force, after graduation from the College and was trained to fly the Sopwith Camel, a vintage airplane.

"He was an extremely patriotic American," Donald Carret said. Carret, who never saw action in World War I, then tried to enlist in the Air Force during World War II, but had to stop flying because of a hand injury.

As one of Harvard's oldest graduates, Carret marched in the Commencement parade several times.

"He was planning on going to Cambridge this Thursday despite the injury. I was going to push him in a wheelchair," Donald Carret said.