John McQuown, creator of the first ever index fund, has died at 90.
According to quantitative investing firm Dimensional Fund Advisors, of which McQuown was a founding director, he died on Tuesday. He is survived by his wife, Leslie, son, Morgan, and daughter-in-law, Alexa.
McQuown’s claim to fame is his 1971 creation of the first index fund. At the time, he was hired by Wells Fargo to set up the bank’s new management sciences department. McQuown built out the team with a bunch of academics and eventually launched the first index fund under Wells Fargo Investment Advisors for Samsonite’s $6m retirement account. Initially, the fund invested in all 1,500 stocks on the NYSE in an equal weighted manner. However, that proved difficult, and in 1973 the group pivoted to set up a fund that simply tracked the S&P 500, according to the Financial Times.
