Howard Stein

Howard Mathew Stein (October 6, 1926 – July 26, 2011) was an American financier who is widely considered one of the fathers of the mutual fund industry. He was featured on the cover of Time magazine on August 24, 1970. Stein invented the first "no load" money market fund and created the first tax-free municipal bond fund. Stein initially planned to become a musician, beginning to learn the violin when he was 5. Stein attended the Straubenmuller Textile High School and the Juilliard School. However, Stein gave up on his music career and went into business. At the age of 23, he loaded steel on to trucks. He then became a trainee at Bache & Co. In 1955, Stein left Bache and joined Dreyfus.

In 1999, Stein started Joy of Giving Something, Inc. (JGS, Inc.), a not-for-profit philanthropic corporation dedicated to the photographic arts.

Personal life and death Stein was married to Janet Gelder; they had two children, Joanna Stein and Jennifer Stein Seay. He also had three stepdaughters from his wife's prior marriage to John Morton Levine: Julia Levine Stokien, Jocelyn Levine Hayes, and Jessica Levine. Stein died on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, at his home in Southampton at the age of 84. According to Stein's son-in-law, Jamie Stokien, he died from complications of a stroke.