Edward C. Johnson II

Edward Crosby Johnson II (January 19, 1898 – April 2, 1984) was an American businessman and lawyer who founded Fidelity Investments.

Biography Edward Crosby Johnson II was born in Back Bay, Boston, Massachusetts, on January 19, 1898, to Samuel Johnson, a partner in the dry-goods firm C.F. Hovey and Co. and Josephine Johnson (née Forbush). Johnson came from a family of New England Puritan ancestry. He graduated from Milton Academy in 1916,

After receiving a law degree, Johnson became an associate at Boston law firm Ropes, Gray, Boyden & Perkins and also became involved in stock market research. Diana B. Henriques wrote in 1995: "...those who knew Ed Johnson sensed...an openness to the new and the exotic. Most of all, there was a very un-Bostonian passion for the quick, rude, sharp-witted world of Wall Street." When tuning into the market forces, he was bold when people were timid and vice versa. He took over the company from his father, Edward C. Johnson II, who was credited as Fidelity's founder. From 1946, he served as the founding chairman of Fidelity Management and Research. He is also said to have taught investors to demand performance as an investment goal. Beginning in 1969, Johnson chaired the board of Fidelity Management and Research.

He died in Cataumet, Massachusetts, of Alzheimer's disease in 1984, and his funeral was held at Milton's Universalist First Parish Church.