HOF 6.8.25 - Flipbook - Page 43
The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, June 8, 2025 43
GEORGE A.
ROCHE
George A. Roche, former chairman and president of T. Rowe Price, has always been on the quieter side. But ask him about almost anything, and he’ll give you his
full-pronged analysis.
Asked about the Baltimore region: “Centrally located,” “very livable,” “good housing stock,” “a number of good schools” and “strong cultural institutions.”
On T. Rowe Price: “Very high integrity,” “strong investment philosophy,” “driven by fundamental research.”
On McCormick & Co.: “Fundamentally very sound,” has “an expertise that’s very valuable” and a “very strong culture.”
“He enjoys the process of discovering every angle about a situation. He’s very deliberate about it,” said William Stromberg, who headed equity research at T. Rowe
during Roche’s leadership and later became the investment firm’s president and CEO himself.
Seldom rushing to a decision, Roche was known
to take meticulous notes on a yellow pad of paper
— “he wants to prepare himself for as many of the
‘known unknowns’ that there are and as many of the
‘unknown unknowns’ that are out there,” Stromberg
said.
During his 38 years at T. Rowe, Roche used that
calculated approach to help grow the company into
a top investment firm, solidifying its strength through
integrity and discipline. Hired as an analyst under the
company’s namesake, Thomas Price, he worked his
way up to the firm’s top, where he’s remembered for
his problem-solving mind, dedication, willingness
to collaborate and adherence to fundamentals. Since
retiring as the firm’s chairman and president in 2006,
he’s quietly applied those skills in the background,
using both his mind and wealth to support charitable
causes in Baltimore.
As chief financial officer, Roche guided the firm
through the complexities of transitioning into a
publicly traded company in 1986.
Roche said he valued collaboration more than
anything else.
“We would respect differences of opinion, and
people could run their own areas,” Roche said.
Preserving that culture of collaboration was a big
part of why T. Rowe resisted multiple offers to be
bought out — “we wanted to control our own destiny,”
Roche said.
At a time when financial firms were taking big
risks, there were several points during Roche’s tenure
at the helm when T. Rowe stood out for its discipline and integrity. While mutual funds firms were
embroiled in an industry-wide scandal over certain
accounts being favored, Roche noted that his firm
was “conspicuously absent” while financial regulators cracked down on the scandal in the early 2000s.
Name: George A. Roche
Age: 83
Hometown: Rochester, New York
Current residence: Baltimore
Education: McQuaid Jesuit High School
in Rochester; Georgetown University, B.A.;
Harvard Business School, M.B.A.
Career highlights: 38 years at T. Rowe Price,
ultimately leading the investment firm as
its chairman and president; McCormick &
Company, former board member
Civic and charitable activities: Board
member at the CollegeBound Foundation;
director emeritus at the Lasker Foundation;
advisory board member at the Johns
Hopkins Lyme Disease Research Center;
former board member at the Greater
Baltimore Committee, Downtown
Partnership, Walters Art Gallery, Enoch Pratt
Library and Roland Park Country School
Family: Was married to Nancy Kathryn
Roche (deceased); two children and three
grandchildren
And the firm famously withstood serious damage
when the dot-com bubble collapsed in 2000, having
held strong to conservative investing principles. As
the technology craze grew among investors in the
late 1990s, T. Rowe was “generally aloof,” Roche said.
Roche’s start at T. Rowe was “not within the mainstream” of the firm that he would lead roughly 30
years later. Price wanted to add natural resource
companies to their portfolio, and hired Roche in 1968
as an analyst for that sector.
The Rochester, New York, native didn’t know Balti-
more, but the city quickly impressed him. Baltimore
had “tremendous advantages,” especially for the line
of work he was in, he said.
One of those advantages, Roche said with a
chuckle, “is that it’s away from Wall Street.” Though
executives had to stay aware of developments in New
York’s financial district, the firm wasn’t overly influenced by the happenings there.
Back then, Baltimore had plenty of locally based
banks, insurance companies and other institutions
that all had “a very strong community spirit,” Roche
said.
Since retiring from T. Rowe, Roche has used both
his business acumen and wealth to support local
causes and give back to Baltimore.
He’s lent his sharp financial skills to the boards of
several nonprofits and educational institutions, and
given plenty to others. It’s “critically important to
support” many of those institutions, which operate
in a fragile state on the margin, he said, noting they
are run by dedicated people who forgo the compensation that they could make in the private sector “and
recognize the sacrifice.”
He focuses his philanthropic efforts on three key
areas: civic improvement efforts aimed at building
stronger neighborhoods and infrastructure; education causes like Living Classrooms and CollegeBound
Foundation, where he currently sits on the board of
directors; and arts and culture — “without the arts
and culture you really don’t have a city, and that’s
critical for us,” he said.
He said that Baltimore and other cities are undergoing “real stress,” but “if we just stick to our knitting
and try to help others, hopefully we’ll have a very
good outcome in the long run.”
— Dan Belson
