Refsnes, Joseph Elmer.

Joseph E. Refsnes (1897-1991), one of Arizona's most prolific and influential securities brokers, was born Nov. 27, 1897, in Anaconda, Montana, to Norwegian immigrant parents. He grew up playing sandlot baseball and fly fishing. Refsnes launched his business career in his teens hawking newspapers to copper miners and businessmen and assisting backstage at the Margaret Theater. While working, he supplemented his eighth-grade education with three years at the Johnson Business College. He applied for a job at the Anaconda Copper smelter in 1913 and was rejected because he was considered too smart. Angry, he got a job at one of the mine dormitories. There he met and started a life-long friendship with Charlie Kuzell who would eventually become president of Phelps-Dodge Corporation.

Refsnes soon left the dormitories to work in the office of the metallurgical manager at the smelter. There he took notes, filled in wherever needed in other departments gaining valuable business experience and conducted tours for visitors because he was good at explaining the smelting process to laypeople. Refsnes became acquainted with metallurgical expert Dr. Louis D. "Doc" Ricketts when he was assigned to run errands and write notes for Ricketts during his visit to the mine in 1916. With Ricketts' encouragement and the promise of a job in Arizona, Refsnes moved in November 1916 to Arizona to work at the Inspiration Copper Mine where he distinguished himself as warehouse bookkeeper.

In 1917 a strike was declared and his boss told him not to report to work so he could avoid running the picket lines. Friends who worked at the Gila Valley Bank and Trust Company encouraged him to apply for a job typing ledger sheets so he could make an income during the strike. He stayed with the bank, took courses through the American Institute of Banking and worked his way up to manager at the Gila Valley branch in Miami, Arizona, where he helped people make investments by purchasing and selling stocks and bonds for them through New York City correspondents and charging a commission. By 1925 he had become branch manager and had met Ruth Cole, a kindergarten teacher, and the daughter of Arizona pioneers Louis Pinkney (L.P.) Cole and Dora Lee Stewart-Cole. Refsnes' success with investments at the Gila Valley Bank caught the attention of officials at the Valley Bank and Trust Company, which acquired Gila, and Refsnes was recruited to manage their new securities department in 1926 in Phoenix. There he met Paul Beck, who joined the department as assistant manager and bank cashier, Sims Ely Jr. On July 10 of that year he and Ruth Cole married and moved to Tempe.

By the early 1930s, banking laws were changing in reaction to the Great Depression, and the bank decided to discontinue its investment division. Refsnes, with the encouragement of community members and the blessings of the Valley Bank board, acquired the files and furniture of the department and began J.E. Refsnes & Co. with Beck as a partner. In October 1931, Ely also became a partner and the firm's title was changed to Refsnes, Ely, Beck & Co. The company's first big jobs were with the Salt River Water Users' Association and the Central Arizona Light and Power Company. Refsnes and his business partners traveled all around the state as the company became heavily involved in public finance issues and handled security transactions, underwrote bonds, bid on new bond issues and served as financial consultants to numerous municipalities and government entities throughout Arizona including towns, school districts, and water districts. The company worked with bonds that built Arizona schools, paved its roads and constructed its municipal infrastructure including the Arizona State Fair Grounds Coliseum.

The company often worked in partnership with securities firms from other parts of the country. Some of the other securities companies that Refsnes worked closely with in syndicates included Pasadena Corporation of Pasadena, California; John Nuveen & Co. of Chicago; Boettcher & Company of Denver; and Stranahan, Harris & Co. of Chicago. For legal advice, Refsnes often relied on the legal firm Gust, Rosenfeld, Divelbess, Robinette & Linton. The Rocky Mountain Bank Note Company of Denver frequently printed the actual bonds.

Refsnes, Ely, Beck & Co. was not only active in consulting work and buying and selling municipal bonds but worked to innovate municipal financing as well. The company helped invent advanced refunding bonds and developed the non-callable sinking fund bond. In 1969, the company merged with Rauscher Pierce Securities Corporation to form Rauscher Pierce Refsnes, Inc. and Refsnes became vice chairman of that company's board. During his career Refsnes also conducted financial analysis of estates and was the co-trustee on several large trusts dealing with philanthropic giving and served as the executor of several estates.

Refsnes participated in community life as a member of numerous organizations including the Phoenix Rotary Club, the Phoenix Society of Financial Analysts, the Phoenix Country Club, the Arizona Club, the Phoenix Press Club, the Doric Lodge F & A M, Carey B. Wilson Lodge F & A M, Phoenix Scottish Rite Bodie and El Zaribah Temple. He served as executive director of the War Finance Committee in Arizona from 1942-1946 directing sales of U.S. bonds and securities. He was also the Honorary Consul for Norway in Arizona from 1946 to 1975, board member of Arizona State Teachers Retirement System from 1936 to 1942 and a member of the City of Phoenix Arizona Housing Board from 1934-1941. He received an honorary doctorate in economics from Jamestown College in 1981.

Refsnes and his wife had two children, Joseph L Refsnes who joined his father in the securities business, and Carolyn Refsnes Kniazzeh who became an artist and art therapist. Ruth Cole Refsnes died December 31, 1984. Joseph E. Refsnes died in Phoenix April 7, 1991.

From the description of The Joseph E. Refsnes collection, 1919-1996 [manucript]. (Scottsdale Public Library). WorldCat record id: 683276604