29 Facts About Joseph Dodge

Joseph Morrell Dodge was a chairman of the Detroit Bank, now Comerica.

Joseph Dodge later served as an economic adviser for postwar economic stabilization programs in Germany and Japan, headed the American delegation to the Austrian Advisory commission, and worked as President Dwight D Eisenhower's director of the Bureau of the Budget.

Joseph Dodge later moved to Japan, having drafted another economic stabilization plan, widely known as the "Dodge Line", in December 1948, as the financial adviser to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, General Douglas MacArthur.

Joseph Dodge grew up with his brother and sister on middle-class Kirby Street in Detroit, Michigan.

Joseph Dodge is the only boy of his age who doesn't like to get his hands dirty.

Joseph Dodge quickly rose through the ranks, starting as a messenger boy, then bookkeeper, then Michigan's youngest state bank examiner.

For five years Joseph Dodge excelled at his post so well as to attract the attention of Bank Commissioner Edward Doyle, who appointed him as his assistant.

In 1916, Joseph Dodge married Julia Jane Jeffers and was offered a job by Michigan's banker-Senator James Couzens at the Bank of Detroit as an operating officer.

On one occasion, Joseph Dodge sought out and questioned a spare-parts dealer who had previously spoken scornfully of him.

Joseph Dodge remained president of the Detroit Bank until January 1953.

Joseph Dodge stuck to his ideals and business sense when running his new bank, even when it meant treading on toes here or there.

Joseph Dodge first began his work for the government acting as a price adjuster by monitoring defense contractors to prevent unnecessary government spending through price gougers and profiteers.

Again in September 1943 Joseph Dodge worked shortly for the War Department, renegotiate war contracts.

Joseph Dodge's plans were only ever partially implemented in the British, French, and US zones in June 1948, after two years of delay.

Joseph Dodge first arrived in Japan February 1949, leading a US mission to rehabilitate the Japanese economy, as the financial adviser to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.

Joseph Dodge's position, granted by President Truman, carried the personal rank of Minister.

Joseph Dodge was able to reduce this deficit by half during the fifteen months he was in office.

Joseph Dodge accomplished this by making use of every conceivable revenue, no matter how supposedly insubstantial.

Additionally, Joseph Dodge rose the rent in Government housing, admissions to national parks, and even told agencies to charge for supplying copies of records.

Joseph Dodge forbade government agencies and departments from filling vacant positions unless absolutely necessary.

Joseph Dodge even refused to replace government cars unless they were six years old and had 60,000 miles of service.

Joseph Dodge, being the first director of budget to hold a membership in the cabinet and National Security Council, strongly supported the New Look.

Ultimately, Joseph Dodge successfully removed $12 billion of extraneous government spending.

The last federal budget Joseph Dodge attempted to balance, before his resignation in March 1954, was fiscal 1955, which he was ultimately unable to balance even with a $5 billion reduction in defense spending through the New Look.

Joseph Dodge returned as chairman to the Detroit Bank briefly before accepting several presidential delegations to both government committees and advisory boards.

Joseph Dodge was reviewing long-range American plans for foreign economic aid programs in September 1954 and reappointed as President Eisenhower's special assistant three months later.

In June 1956, Joseph Dodge became chairman of the reorganized Detroit Bank and Trust Company who had merged with three local financial institutions and whose assets exceeded $1 billion.

Also, for his accomplishments as financial adviser to the Office of Military Government in Berlin and as General Lucius D Clay's finance director for American forces in Germany, Dodge was awarded the Medal of Merit on September 18,1946.

Three years before his death, Joseph Dodge was decorated with the Grand Cordon Order of the Rising Sun by Emperor Hirohito on the tenth anniversary of Japan's postwar independence, on April 28,1962, in recognition of his services.