Word: murdock
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Befriending the Bank. The son of a traveling salesman, Missouri-born David Murdock quit school in the tenth grade to go to work, was paying his own way even before that. Says he: "I can remember mowing lawns when I was so small I couldn't get both hands up to the lawn-mower handle." After a World War II stint in the Air Force, he drifted into Phoenix with a young wife, a trailer, and a $12,000 stake he had earned running a short-order restaurant in Detroit...
Plunging into partnership with a small-time Phoenix housing contractor, Murdock quickly lost most of his savings when his partner skipped town. Though he knew nothing about either building or real estate. Murdock was determined to pay off the money the partnership had borrowed at Arizona's Valley National Bank, finished the houses by working on them himself. So impressed was Valley National that it backed him on more houses, and in 1952 helped him move into commercial building. Two years later, at 31, he was worth a million, chiefly in land parcels north of downtown Phoenix that were...
...Zeckendorf Formula. From the start, Murdock consciously modeled his business and tax techniques on those of Manhattan's high-flying William Zeckendorf (who has had less success with them lately than Murdock). Invariably retain ing ownership of the structures he built. Murdock took advantage of the 1954 change in the Internal Revenue Code permitting accelerated depreciation on buildings. He multiplied his holdings by borrowing against the income from leases and the capital appreciation of the property. Hardly had construction begun on the $6,500,000 Guaranty Bank Building in 1959 when Murdock smelled the possibility of a new killing...
...Murdock likes to become his own tenant. The Guaranty Bank was born when Murdock idly remarked at a cocktail party: "I wish I had a bank in my building." Huddling over a punch bowl, his companions leaped at the idea, joined Murdock in pledging $960,000 toward the founding of the bank-whose stock has jumped from $20 to better than $70 in the past 13 months. The prime tenant in the bigger of Murdock's two downtown buildings will be the Union Title & Trust Co., which was organized by Murdock and his friends in April, overnight became...
Hunter & Huntee. A man of swift moods, Murdock is most happy when involved in a dozen deals at once, miserable when little details do not fall into place. At such times he turns for solace to the music of Wagner, or rereads a favorite short story called The Most Dangerous Game, in which the hero declares...