American financier and stock market wizard who gained renown as the principal manager of the Fidelity Magellan mutual fund by transforming it into a $13 billion business. One of the most successful money managers in Wall Street history, he shocked his peers by retiring at age 46. He is the author of “One Up On Wall Street,” 1989, “Beat the Street,” 1993 and “Learn To Earn,” 1995.
Lynch’s dad was a Boston College math teacher who later worked as an auditor for John Hancock. His untimely death when Lynch was ten sent the boy to work on a paper route, then later as a caddie. “I caddied because I could make more on a Saturday morning than I could in a week of delivering newspapers.” He began to pay close attention to those he was caddying for, businessmen, doctors and lawyers – all talking about the stock market. “Those years on the golf course were a great education, the next best thing to being on the floor of the exchange.”
After winning a partial scholarship for caddies to attend Boston College, Lynch made his first investment of $1,250 in the Flying Tigers at $7 a share. Two years later the stock jumped to $32, then climbed even higher. Selling his shares to help finance graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, his marked tendency to be a loner workaholic earned him the nickname “The Mole.”
In the summer of 1966, Lynch was one of a hundred applicants for a summer job with Fidelity when he found out he had an unbeatable edge; he had caddied for the President of the company as a teenager. Required by Fidelity to serve two years in the Army in South Korea before he could gain full-time employment with the company, he was finally accepted as a metals analyst in 1969. After eight years as director of research, he took over Magellan.
As the funds flourished, so did Lynch. Working 80-hour weeks throughout the ’80s took its toll, however, and now that he had more money than he had ever dreamed of, he decided to cash it all in at age 46, the same age that his father was at his death. His work filled weeks left no time for his wife and children. “I knew there was something wrong with my life.”
Lynch married Carolyn in 1968. They had three daughters, Annie, Beth and Mary and made their home on the Boston’s North Shore.
In 5/31/1991, he and his wife started charitable foundations and Lynch spent some time in high visibility promoting his books, newsletter and financial products.
Link to Wikipedia biography