Frank Laird | Bond trader, 98

Frank Laird, 98, a former Philadelphia bond trader, died of lung cancer on Sunday, May 9, at Avow Hospice in Naples, Fla. Mr. Baird also had lived in West Chester.

Born in Center City Philadelphia, he graduated from Central High School in 1929, said his daughter Laurie.

He began his career at a Philadelphia firm as a board boy, whose job, his daughter explained, was "manually changing listed stock prices as displayed on a large board viewed by investors and brokers."

In 1935, she said, he went to work for the Philadelphia brokerage Stroud & Co. and worked for its successors until he retired in 1982.

His daughter said Mr. Laird "was one of the pioneers of the junk bond market, well before high-yield securities entered the mainstream in the late 1980s." She said he "was widely regarded as one of the country's leading experts on railroad securities."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Laird is survived by his wife, Lillian; daughters Patricia Kelly and Judy Fluharty; stepchildren Vernon Keesey and Eileen Delaney; and 11 grandchildren.

There was no service.