Building on the Eccles Legacy

1863

At the age of 14, David Eccles sails with his family from Scotland to America aboard the ship Cynosure. He never forgets his impoverished beginnings, providing generous aid to families, businesses, and communities in his later years

1873

David Eccles forms Eccles, Gibson and Van Noy, the first of 54 companies he would create and invest in the course of his life, becoming one of the most successful industrialists of the west, and Utah's first multimillionaire. Over the next 23 years, much of his profits are reinvested into other Utah enterprises such as banks, insurance companies, railroads, factories, and real estate.

1912

David Eccles dies in 1912 in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time of his death at age 63, he was president of 17 industrial corporations and 7 banks, and a director of 24 other banks and industries. On the day of his funeral, government offices and private businesses throughout the West halt operations to honor his memory.

1916

Through the Eccles Investment Company, a family holding company, David's sons, Marriner and George Eccles, acquire control of many of their father's enterprises on behalf of the family.

1928

E.G. Bennett and Marriner and George Eccles combine extensive business entities and the six banks their father left them to launch the First Security Corporation, a holding company to manage their family's numerous banks and savings and loan institutions.

Throughout the 20th Century, the Eccles family's holdings include some of the largest lumber, construction, mining, beet sugar processing, and banking companies in the U.S. Among the family's landmark activities, Utah Construction led the six companies that built the Hoover Dam and much of the infrastructure of the western United States, and the First Security Bank was the first and oldest multi-state bank holding company in the country.

The family's legacy is marked by iconic buildings like the First Security Bank Building in the heart of Utah's capital city, Salt Lake City, and the Union Pacific Railroad Depot that was part of the first Transcontinental Railroad spanning the nation.

1934

Marriner S. Eccles was appointed Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board on November 15, 1934. Before entering public service, Eccles gained national attention for successfully steering the First Security Corporation through the banking crises of early 1930's, a time when 11,000 banks in the US failed.

In 1933, Congress invited him to give his analysis of the Great Depression. In his testimony, he proposed a five-point program to fix the economy that formed the basis of the New Deal.

Eccles made such a lasting impact on the Federal Reserve System that the Federal Reserve Building in Washington, DC, was renamed in his honor.

At the end of the 20th century, the family sells most of its long-held private investments to large public companies in some of the landmark merger and acquisition transactions of the era including the sale of Utah Construction to General Electric in what was then the largest merger transaction in US history.

The proceeds of these sales funded the growth of the family's many philanthropic activities. Descendants of David Eccles have formed over a dozen foundations devoted to supporting civic life in Utah and the West. Today, gifts of the Eccles family account for almost 20% of all the private philanthropy in the state of Utah.

2013

Continuing the Eccles family legacy established over a century ago, The Cynosure Group is formed in 2013 as an investment firm commissioned to manage the family investment portfolio, as well as those of other long-term investors.

Cynosure's investment management plays a key role building long-term investment portfolios crafted to help carry on the philanthropic efforts of the Eccles family.

2023

In the spring and summer of 2023, Cynosure added two new divisions, Cynosure Wealth Advisors and Cynosure Strategies, while reorganizing the broader firm into four distinct business lines, including Cynosure Partners and Cynosure Capital Management.