Members of the Board
The seventh in the series of biographical sketches of members of the Dartmouth Board of Trustees follows:
William J. Minsch '07
KNOWN IN HIS undergraduate years for his highly successful manage ment of the College Bookstore (now part of the Dartmouth Co-op), William J. Minsch '07 as a graduate of the College continues to take an active part in its alumni and financial affairs. He has been an Alumni Trustee since 1938 and is a member of the Trustees' Committee on Investments. A former chairman of the Alumni Fund Committee, he continues to direct for the Trustees and the Alumni Council a special gifts and endowment project. He was president of the Alumni Council from 1928 to 1934 and arranged the sale of the bonds that financed the first Dartmouth Club House in New York.
Mr. Minsch's outstanding financial career received its auspicious start at Dartmouth, through which he worked his way as the manager of the bookstore. He also found time to play guard on the freshman and sophomore football teams and, as a senior, delivered the Class Day oration. During his freshman year he was burned out in the great fire of February 18, 1904, which destroyed the upper floors of old Dartmouth Hall, then partly used as a dormitory.
Having obtained both his degree and the experience of quadrupling the earnings of the bookstore, Mr. Minsch went on to the Tuck School to receive his M.C.S. degree in 1908. Immediately upon completing his education, he ventured into a new field far removed from Hanover. He accepted a position with the United Fruit Company on one of its Guatemalan banana plantations. His executive abilities were soon recognized by a promotion to the management of a plantation and eventually he was given the job of directing the construction of a 1000-acre plantation complete with a railway and tramways.
After a year in the tropics, Mr. Minsch decided that there were more opportunities for him back in the States and he joined the investment house of Lee, Higginson & Cos. as a bond salesilian in their New York territory. His decision to leave plantation management was justified for he soon became sales manager for the company. In 1920 he left Lee, Higginson to form his own investment banking business in New York City under the firm name of Minsch, Monell & Cos., Inc. He has been president of the organization since its start. From 1926 to 1932 he was a general partner of Aldred & Cos. and he has played an important part in planning and arranging the financing of various large power companies in the United States, Canada and Italy.
In 1920, Mr. Minsch was appointed governor of the Bond Club of New York, serving until 1922. He was reappointed governor from 1926 to 1930 and was president of the Club from 1927 to 1928. He has served the investment banking industry in various other honorary capacities. Besides being a member of the Bond Club of New York, he also belongs to the Broad Street Club, the New York Dartmouth College Club, the Downtown Athletic Club and Delta Tau Delta. He was chairman of the Nutley Social Service from 1921 to 1922.
As a resident of Montclair, N. J., and a member of the Montclair Association, Mr. Minsch is deeply interested in the civic affairs of the town. In 1936 he was appointed consultant in the town's refunding plans and is now serving as Montclair town commissioner and as director of revenue and finance.
Mr. Minsch was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1884, but grew up in Worcester, Mass. He was married to Neva N. Reynolds, a graduate of Smith College, in 1910 in Oneida, N. Y. They have two daughters, Dorothy-Louise (now Mrs. Nelson L. Bond) and Elizabeth R., and a son, William J. Jr. Both daughters are Smith graduates and William Jr. is a Dartmouth '36 man and a former Undergraduate Editor of the MAGAZINE. A lawyer by profession, William Jr. is now a first lieutenant in the U. S. Army.
An enthusiastic hunter and fisherman, Mr. Minsch manages to escape occasionally from his many important duties to enjoy his favorite sports.
