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Julia Walsh did not grow up dreaming of being the first woman with a seat on the American Stock Exchange, the first woman to graduate from the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program, or one of the first women to head an East Coast investment firm. All she wanted was to get out of Akron, Ohio.
After graduating from Kent State University, Walsh joined the Foreign Service, then married military officer John Montgomery and followed him to Washington. George Ferris, Jr. of Ferris & Company offered to let her try her hand as a stockbroker. The day she earned her first commission, she discovered her husband was being transferred.
Walsh and their four children were on their way to join John when she learned he had been killed. The 34 year old widow returned to Ferris & Company. She invested $30,000 in the stock market, and in a year had tripled her money. Soon she was a partner at Ferris & Company.
By 1977, Walsh, who had remarried and acquired seven stepchildren, was one of the nation's highest-paid brokers. At age 54 she started her own firm, Julia M. Walsh & Sons, which became a subsidiary of Tucker, Anthony & R.L. Day in 1984.
Julia Walsh had a stroke last year and is no longer active in the business, but her spirit remains strong in her sons, daughters, and associates. Walsh taught them to take risks, to "put your reputation and your future on the line in an attempt to do something bigger and better."
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