Marriner S. Eccles
The Man Who Helped Shape American Business
Marriner S. Eccles stands among the most respected and admired citizens in the history of the state of Utah and the United States of America – an entrepreneur who profoundly infuenced the business and economic life of his home state and the entire nation in the 20th century.A son of pioneering Utah industrialist David Eccles and his wife, Ellen Stoddard Eccles, he rose with keen intellect and entrepreneurial zeal to become an illustrious businessman and banker of historic dimension, playing a vital role in delivering the nation from the Great Depression, leading the financial system through the upheavals of World War II, and establishing monetary policies and keystones of the U.S. Financial system upon which the nation still relies today.
“For the century spanning 1890 to 1990 – yes, for a period of 100 years – much has been written counting Marriner Eccles among the handful of individuals who most influenced the business and economic life of our nation.”
At right (via desktop), Marriner S. Eccles, 1951, in front of the Federal Reserve Board Building in Washington, D.C. As chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 1935-48, he oversaw the building’s construction in 1936. It was rededicated in his honor in 1983.
Left, Spencer F. Eccles speaks at the dedication of the statue of Marriner S. Eccles at the Marriner S. Eccles Federal Reserve Board Building, Washington, D.C., May 7, 2014.
Marriner Eccles was born in Logan, Utah, the eldest of nine children of David and Ellen Stoddard Eccles, who had emigrated from Scotland. He was just three years old when the family moved to an even more remote spot than Logan: Baker City, Oregon – the center of his father’s lumber empire in the heart of the magnifcent Oregon forests. With a strong work ethic instilled by his parents, he began working 10-hour days in his father’s lumber mill at age eight for 5 cents an hour. Having saved $100 in three years, he purchased one share of Oregon Lumber Company stock … and a lifelong businessman and capitalist was born.
Portrait of the David and Ellen Eccles
family prior to Mr. Eccles’ sudden
death in 1912 at age 63. As the eldest
son, 22-year-old Marriner would
bear responsibility for his mother,
eight younger siblings, and the
family’s vast inherited business
interests. Pictured (l to r): George,
Emma, Jessie, David, Marriner,
Ellen (daughter), Ellen (mother),
Marie, Willard, Spencer and Nora.
Marriner on his mission in Scotland
Marriner left home at age 19 to serve a mission in Scotland for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, having completed just three years of high school. That would be the sum total of his formal education. Now back in Logan, Utah, Marriner was only 22 years old when the sudden death of his father in 1912 left him to care for his mother, eight younger siblings, and the family’s vast business interests. He would succeed on all fronts, ultimately coming to run much of his father’s business empire and creating the First Security Corporation multi-state banking company in 1928. 
He went on to build many other successful business enterprises, including numerous banks, and at the time of the nation’s financial crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, his keen mind and nerves of steel staved of financial disaster, with no depositor at any Eccles-led bank losing even one penny. (Pictured Right, First Security Bank 1929)
“Father of the Modern Federal Reserve”
Marriner S. Eccles distinguished himself as a trusted advisor to several United States presidents, beginning with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1933. Called upon by President Roosevelt to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve (1934-48), he crafted the nation’s monetary policy and many keystones of the U.S. Financial system that remain today, including a dramatically reformed Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States; the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC); and the Federal Housing Act (FHA).
MARRINER S. ECCLES
*Assistant Secretary,
U.S. Department of the Treasury, 1934
*Author, Banking Act of 1935
*Governor, Federal Reserve Board, 1934-51
*Chairman, Board of Governors,
Federal Reserve System, 1935-48
*Member, U.S. Delegation,
Bretton Wood Conference, 1944
In 1944, just before the end of World War II, he helped craft agreements at the historic Bretton Woods Conference that created the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In 1951, he precipitated the Treasury-Federal Reserve Accord, a critical element of the Federal Reserve’s independence, and he remained on the Federal Reserve Board until later that year. Subsequent Federal Reserve chairs have called him the “father of the modern Federal Reserve.” Considered brilliant, though not without controversy, he remained an invaluable advisor to the Federal government until his death in 1977 at the age of 87.
A 1936 cover story of Time noted:
“A good many people believe that Marriner Eccles
is the only thing standing between the
United States and disaster.”
Banking, Construction, Lumber, Sugar, Mining, Hotels
The sudden death of his father in 1912 had thrust then 22-year-old Marriner into the leadership of the Eccles family business empire. Already a businessman at heart, by 1928 he expanded the empire further by acquiring 28 banks in Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, and forming First Security Corporation, the nation’s first operating multi-state bank holding company. It would grow into one of the nation’s finest banking organizations prior to its historic merger with Wells Fargo & Company in 2000.
Marriner Eccles led Utah Construction & Mining Co., which built railroads, operated mining concerns worldwide, and built 58 dams between 1916 and 1969. It led the consortium of six builders that constructed the gigantic Hoover Dam in 1931, the largest Federal construction project of the time. Later known as Utah International, Inc., the company merged with General Electric in 1976 in the largest corporate merger seen up to that time. Following his 17 years of Federal Reserve leadership in Washington D.C. (1934-51), he returned to Utah and the West to resume his successful career as a banker, businessman, and philanthropist, greatly expanding the scope and value of his family’s business interests.
MARRINER S. ECCLES
| President & Chairman: | First Security Corporation |
| Director & Chairman: | Utah Construction & Mining/Utah International(merged with General Electric in 1976) |
| President & Chairman: | Amalgamated Sugar Co. |
| President: | Eccles Investment Co., First Security Corporation, First National Bank of Ogden, First Savings Bank of Ogden, Hyrum State Bank, Stoddard Lumber Co., Eccles Hotel Co., Sego Milk Products Co. |
| Director: | Anderson Lumber Co., Utah-Idaho Central Railroad, Mountain States Implement Co., Utah Power & Light, Pet Milk Co., Lion Coal Co./Marcona Mine Co. |
Above, brothers Marriner and George Eccles oversee construction of the innovative new First Security Bank in Salt Lake City, 1954; Lower-left, the Amalgamated Sugar Company factory, Logan, Utah, 1912; the two books Marriner authored in 1951 and 1976
Pictured below (via desktop), officials ride in one of the penstock pipes of the soon-to-becompleted Hoover Dam, circa 1935.