"A Ragged Dick"

The Golden Age of American Management lasted, approximately, from 1920 to 1970. The best description of America's corporate chief executive in the Golden Age was provided by Vasser professor, Mabel Newcomer, in the The Big Business Executive: The Factors that Made Him (1950). The hero of the book was:

. . . a native born American, the son of a small, independent businessman. His family income was moderate. And such small jobs as he pursued during his boyhood were for extra spending rather that to help support his family. His parents managed to put him through college, with such contributions as he himself made to his own expenses through part-time employment. Upon graduation he obtained a full-time job, with no assistance from his family. Thenceforth he was on his own. While still relatively young and inexperienced, he obtained a minor position with the corporation that he eventually headed, and he gradually worked up, through operations or production, to a vice-presidency, from which he was promoted to the presidency at the age of fifty-two.

Ragged Dick is a children's novel by Horatio Alger, Jr. Published in 1868, it is a rags to riches story based on moral behavior, clean living, and determination - - the person who made his way from the near the bottom to the top by dint of dedication to the task at hand. A Ragged Dick - - our man of management from 1920 to 1970.