Deceased May 16, 2020
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In Memory
Ashby was a well-known national financial writer. For many years, he was a regular featured columnist for Forbes magazine. He preached fiscal conservatism; witness his call for social security reform and his 1979 book How to Cope With the Developing Financial Crisis. Forbes even referred to Ashby as their “in-house pessimist.”
Ashby was a senior vice president at both Guardian Life Insurance and Phoenix Life Insurance. Earlier in his career, he had been a research analyst at Connecticut Life Insurance and Salomon Brothers. He even ventured into the academic world—assistant to the treasurer at Cornell—as well as the manufacturing industry—manager of corporate investments at American Standard.
Storm King was his prep school and Kappa Theta his Amherst fraternity. After college, he went on to get a master’s in philosophy from Columbia University.
Ashby died from natural causes in May of this year at the age of 91. We extend our sympathy to his wife, Virginia, and children Ashby, Virginia and Daphne Charette.
John Priesing ’50