Victor Lea

NYT: OBIT, New York Times, November 24, 1959, Sergeantsville, N.J., Nov. 23 - Victor L. Lea, manager of the commodity department of Paine, Webber, Jackson & Curtis, died of a heart attack yesterday at his home here. He was 53 years old. His office was at 25 Broad Street, New York. Mr. Lea had for the last twenty-six years lectured on commodity markets and analysis at the New York Institute of Finance, New York. He had also lectured at Columbia and New York Universities. A founder of the Commodity Research Bureau in New York and the Commodity Club of New York, he was the author of a book on fats and oils. Mr. Lea began his career at the New York brokerage firm of E.A. Pierce & Co. Later he joined the brokerage house there of Fenner & Beane and then Hirsch, Lilenthal & Co. During World War II Mr. Lea served in Washington as chief of the Fats and Oils Division of the Office of Price Administration. After the war he was manager of the economic research department of Standard Brands, Inc. Later he operated his own firm in New York, Victor Lea & Co., commodity investment consultants and brokers of edible fats and oils. He was manager of the commodity department of the New York brokerage firm of Walston, Hoffman & Goodwin before he joined Paine, Webber in 1953. Surviving are his widow, Alvah; a son, Victor L., Jr., and his father, Edgar V. Lea of Flemington, N.J.