Robert Michael Fomon was an American financier who was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of E. F. Hutton & Co.

E. F. Hutton & Co.

E. F. Hutton & Co. was an American stock brokerage firm founded in 1904 by Edward Francis Hutton, his brother Franklyn Laws Hutton, and later led by well known Wall Street trader Gerald M. Loeb. Under their leadership, Hutton became one of the most respected financial firms in the United States...

 from 1970 to 1987, a governor of the New York Stock Exchange

New York Stock Exchange

The New York Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located at 11 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, USA. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed companies at 13.39 trillion as of Dec 2010...

, and Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Pacific Stock Exchange

Pacific Exchange

The Pacific Exchange was, until 2001, a regional stock exchange with a main exchange floor and building in San Francisco, California, USA and a branch in Los Angeles, California, USA. Its history began with the founding of the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange in 1882 and the Los Angeles Oil...

. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-530741.html

Born in Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

, after the early death of his mother, Robert Fomon and his older brother Samuel, spent their childhood with relatives in Appleton, Wisconsin

Appleton, Wisconsin

Appleton is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago Counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is situated on the Fox River, 30 miles southwest of Green Bay and 100 miles north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the county seat of Outagamie County. The population was 78,086 at the 2010 census...

 where they attended high school. Robert went on to graduate from the University of Southern California

University of Southern California

The University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...

 and in 1951 went to work in the corporate finance

Corporate finance

Corporate finance is the area of finance dealing with monetary decisions that business enterprises make and the tools and analysis used to make these decisions. The primary goal of corporate finance is to maximize shareholder value while managing the firm's financial risks...

 department of the Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

 office of E. F. Hutton & Co.

Personal life

Robert Fomon was first married in 1954 to Marilyn Quaintance with whom he had two children. Divorced, he married for a second time in 1975 to Sharon Kay Ritchie

Sharon Ritchie

Sharon Kay Ritchie was Miss America in 1956.Ritchie spent her childhood in Grand Island, Nebraska, but hailed from Denver as Miss Colorado. Formerly married to singer/golfer Don Cherry, sportswriter Kyle Rote, and E. F. Hutton & Co. chairman Robert M. Fomon. She has been married to Terry Mullin...

, Miss America

Miss America

The Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...

 of 1956. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10D12F63D5D117588DDAF0994DA405B858BF1D3 That marriage too ended in divorce and in 1989 he married Daphne Lewis Ashley Widener, the ex-wife of Widener family

Widener family

The American Widener family of Peter Arrell Brown Widener and his wife Hannah Josephine Dunton were from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and were one of the wealthiest families in the United States...

 member, Peter A. B. Widener III. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=MH&s_site=miami&p_multi=MH&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB338867A570E9B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM

While living in California in the 1960s, Robert Fomon became involved in the sport of Thoroughbred

Thoroughbred

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word thoroughbred is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed...

 horse racing

Horse racing

Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...

. He notably owned in partnership the colt Inclusive, winner of the 1963 Texas Derby at Sunland Racetrack

Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino

Sunland Park Racetrack & Casino is a racino located in Sunland Park, New Mexico, a suburb of El Paso, Texas.Opened in 1959 as a thoroughbred racing track, Sunland Park was the only legalized gambling venue in the region for many years...

  in Sunland Park, New Mexico

Sunland Park, New Mexico

Sunland Park is a city in Doña Ana County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 14,106 at the 2010 census. Though it lies directly across from El Paso, Texas, being in Doña Ana County makes it instead a part of the Las Cruces Metropolitan Statistical Area, some 30 miles to the north.The...

 and the 1964 San Luis Rey Handicap

San Luis Rey Handicap

The San Luis Rey Handicap is an American Thoroughbred horse race run annually at Santa Anita Park in Arcadia, California. Held during the third week of March, the Grade II event is open to horses of either gender, age four and up, willing to race one and one-half miles on the turf.Prior to 1955,...

 at Santa Anita Park

Santa Anita Park

Santa Anita Park is a thoroughbred racetrack in Arcadia, California, United States. It offers some of the prominent racing events in the United States during the winter and in spring. With its backdrop of the purple San Gabriel Mountains, it is considered by many as the world's most beautiful race...

 in Arcadia

Arcadia, California

Arcadia is an affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, and located approximately northeast of downtown Los Angeles in the San Gabriel Valley and at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains....

. http://www.pedigreequery.com/inclusive2

Head of E. F. Hutton & Co.

In 1970, Robert Fomon was appointed Chief Executive Officer of E. F. Hutton & Co. and relocated to its headquarters in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. During his tenure as CEO and Chaiman, Fomon oversaw the sale of Hutton shares to the public and listing on the New York Stock exchange, and the creation of its famous advertising slogan, "When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen." The May 6, 1987 New York Times wrote that his leadership "helped build the retail-oriented brokerage house into one of the industry's most successful during a difficult era on Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

." http://www.nytimes.com/1987/05/06/business/business-people-hutton-s-chairman-expected-to-resign.html Robert Fomon also recognized the potential dangers of mergers in the financial industry and advised the Republican

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 administration of President Nixon

Richard Nixon

Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...

 that he believed there was a fundamental conflict of interest

Conflict of interest

A conflict of interest occurs when an individual or organization is involved in multiple interests, one of which could possibly corrupt the motivation for an act in the other....

 in the case of money management

Money management

Money management is the process of managing money which includes investment, budgeting, banking and taxes. It is also called investment management....

 firms and brokerage

Stock broker

A stock broker or stockbroker is a regulated professional broker who buys and sells shares and other securities through market makers or Agency Only Firms on behalf of investors...

 houses and the two should operate as independent entities. http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60713FE3A5F127A93C1A91788D85F458785F9

Business scandal and resignation

In 1984 the United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania opened a federal criminal probe into an E. F. Hutton & Co. check-overdrafting scheme that operated between 1980 and 1982 and which earned the company millions of dollars in illegal gains. As a result the company's reputation was severely tarnished and it began losing clients which quickly led to financial difficulties. In December of 1986, the company pled guilty to 2,000 felony counts, but neither Robert Fomon of any Hutton executives were charged. In early 1987, Hutton's Board of Directors

Board of directors

A board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...

 forced Robert Fomon to step down as head of the company.

E. F. Hutton & Co. never recovered from the damage the scandal caused and in 1988 it was acquired by Shearson Lehman Brothers .

Robert Fomon died following a heart attack at a Palm Beach, Florida

Palm Beach, Florida

The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...

hospital on May 31, 2000 at age seventy-five.