1924

Ted Lamb has sent me a copy of ToledoMagazine for the week of March 2-8, 1986. As most of you know, Ted has had a spectacular and controversial career, the details of which cannot be adequately capsulized within the space allowed in this column.

Some highlights, however, seem in order. His first major financial triumph occurred at Dartmouth where, with several friends, he ran a total of nine intercollegiate dances in New York City and ended up with a net personal profit of "almost $10,000." Another Dartmouth connection mentioned in the article reads: "Lamb serves on the boards of various United Nations support groups and has donated substantial sums of money to create Dartmouth Institute for the U.N. which trains interns for the U.N. program."

Ted went to Harvard Law School for a year, then to Yale Law School for the next year and finished at Western Reserve Law School in order to get a feel for Ohio law because he planned to practice law in his native Toledo. He then spent a year or two as hobo and a seaman. He ended up in Spokane, where he bought a horse, planning to ride it back to Toledo. The horse died in Minnesota, and he hiked the last 500 miles.

He started practicing law in 1930. He turned out to have a real courtroom flair which brought him prestigious corporate clients. Starting in 1934 he began representing labor unions, ending with his victory in the United States Supreme Court in the famous portal-to-portal case.

On the side he began to make money in real estate and other ventures. By 1946 he had roughly $3 million. In 1948 he went into the business of buying radio stations, and two years later he had his first television station on the air. By 1979 he estimated that he had control over firms which had assets of more than $600 million. In 1980 he estimated his personal wealth at about $90 million.

Life for Ted has not been a bed of roses, and he could hardly have nourished his "love for a good fight" if it had been. In 1938, there was a move to have him disbarred, but this foundered as did a later attempt to brand him a communist who would therefore not be entitled to have his radio and television stations licensed.

Discussion of charges and countercharges would be a lot of fun, but I would like to end with the affirmative note that Ted has been married to Prudence for more than 55 years and still gets up at 7:00 a.m., exercises, and takes a three-mile walk before work.

97 Angell Street Providence, RI 02906