The Dow Family in the Investment Business
As described by Clifford G. Dow, Sr.
Our Genealogy
There is apparently a stockbroker gene in our branch of the Dow Family. Dow Investment Group was formed in the late 1930s when my uncle became a stockbroker in 1937 and my father, Cliff, Sr., joined him in 1939. Their younger brother came on board shortly after World War II. The fourth sibling of the first generation, a sister, served as a secretary to her three brothers some years later; and, during all my father’s years in the business, my mother, Louise, served him in a part-time secretarial capacity. After my dad passed away in 1974, my mom continued to work in our office for several years; and, until she passed away in 2003, at age eighty-eight, she was monitoring the financial news channel on CNBC and faxing us summaries of what was going on in the world – its economies, politics, business developments, and stock markets. Because she knew what we needed to know and transmitted it to us when we needed to know it, we considered our “Nannygrams” of more value to us than even our Wall Street Journal.
When I joined the family business in 1962, the Dow Investment Group worked out of an office in Lewiston, Maine. Each of the other two first generation Dow brothers also had a son who came into the business in the years that followed; hence, we had three more Dow brokers for the second generation. As our own four boys went away to school, my wife, Barbara, also began to come into the office to assist us on a part-time basis.
Our four sons, Cliff, Jr., Russell, Michael, and Bill, who constitute the third generation, each began to learn the business by helping out in the office during his college summer breaks. As each finished school, he decided he would give the brokerage business a try full-time, and each has been involved ever since.
Our Experience
The Dows embody a sense of family heritage for which New Englanders are known. Investors have turned to the Dow family for financial services and investment advice for over 70 years. The Dow tradition of financial service is now in its third generation.
There appears to be a stockbroker gene in the Dow Family. Millard Dow became a stockbroker in 1937 — with his three siblings, Clifford, Avard, and Ruth, as well as Clifford’s wife, Louise, all subsequently joining the family business.
For the second generation, each of the three brothers had a son who joined the family as stockbrokers. Two of these sons, Cliff, Sr. and Avard, Jr., as well as Cliff, Sr.’s wife, Barbara, make up the second generation currently active in the business. The third generation is comprised of the four sons of Cliff, Sr. and Barbara — Cliff, Jr., Russell, Michael, and William. The firm has continued to grow consistently with the addition of a number of valued associates.