Junius Wentworth Peake (1932 – 2012)

Junius Wentworth Peake (1932 – 2012)

Junius W. Peake, University of Northern Colorado (UNC) Kenneth W. Monfort College of Business Professor of Finance Emeritus and Wall Street visionary, died on Friday (Jan. 27, 2012) in Greeley, CO at the age of 80.

Junius, known as Jay, was born in New York, NY, where he attended choir school at the Cathedral of St John the Devine. He graduated from Woodbury Forest School in 1948. He attended Syracuse University.

Jay began his career on Wall Street at Garvin Bantel & Co. in 1950. He subsequently moved to Shields & Co. where he was the partner responsible for operations. He served as vice chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers. Following the “back office crisis” of the late 60s and early 70s, Jay began a quest to improve trading and settlement on Wall Street. A recognized expert in the microstructure of markets, he testified before Congress numerous times, which led to a 1975 Act of Congress calling for a new, technologically superior trading system.

Together with Morris Mendelson of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and R.T. Williams, an industry consultant, in 1976 Jay presented a proposal to the National Market Advisory Board entitled the “National Book System: An Electronically-Assisted Auction Market”. This revolutionary proposal called for, among other things, screen-based trading, consolidated bids and offers, and minimal price increments in decimals. Putting his principles into practice, in 1983, he headed the launch of the International Futures Exchange (Intex), the world’s first automated futures exchange. It was, however, an idea before its time. He wrote many thought leading papers on the subject of market microstructure with the “ABC’s of Trading on a National Market System” in the Financial Analyst’s Journal in September of 1979 particularly noteworthy.

Following a distinguished career on Wall Street, Jay taught finance for 14 years at the University of Northern Colorado’s Monfort School of Business. He joined the faculty in 1993 as the first Monfort Executive Professor and was named Professor Emeritus when he later retired. Passionate about issues surrounding education, he greatly enjoyed academic life and encouraged vigorous debate.

Jay is survived by his wife Diane Ryerson-Peake; two sons, James Peake of Marblehead, MA, and Andrew (Debbie) Peake of Weston, CT; stepdaughter Renee (Kostas) Marousis of Chicago, IL; and three grandchildren, Christopher Peake, and Eleni and Zoe Marousis. He also is survived by his sister, Miraed Peake Smith of New York. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Jay Peake Scholarship Fund; c/o University of Northern Colorado Foundation, Campus Box 20, Greeley, CO 80639.