Jack Dreyfus | Mutual-fund pioneer, 95

Jack Dreyfus, 95, a master money manager whose marketing savvy helped forge Wall Street's image in Main Street's mind, died Friday at a New York hospital.

As the creator of the Dreyfus Fund and its parent Dreyfus Corp., Mr. Dreyfus built one of the nation's biggest mutual investment funds and one of the first that actively courted everyday individuals, rather than just professional financiers and institutions.

The fund's lion symbol - introduced in a cheeky 1950s ad that showed the big cat striding out of a subway station and down Wall Street - became a familiar mark of success and power to generations of Americans.

During the 12 years he ran the Dreyfus Fund, it returned 604 percent - more than 100 percentage points better than its closest competitor, according to a 2004 Investor's Business Daily story that described his method of charting stocks on giant sheets of graph paper.

Life magazine called him a "maverick wizard." He dubbed himself "the lion of Wall Street" in a 1996 book, one of at least five he wrote.

Born in Montgomery, Ala., Mr. Dreyfus said he wasn't much of a student growing up or at Lehigh University. He started a brokerage house in 1947 before launching his mutual fund in 1951.

He also was a high-ranking bridge and gin-rummy player, bred champion racehorses, and won tennis tournaments for players in their 60s and 70s.

- AP