[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 137 (Thursday, September 15, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S5681]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REMEMBERING HENRY TAUB
Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, I speak today in commemoration
of the life of Henry Taub, founder of ADP in 1949 at 21 years of age.
He was 19 years old when he received his degree in accounting from NYU.
The company then called Automatic Payrolls was started with a loan of
$5,000.
Henry Taub and I became acquainted in 1952 when we both worked in a
building in Paterson, NJ where Henry's payroll service company was
based. Our occasional contact served to familiarize me with a vital
service to businesses large and small.
It was in 1952 that I joined this fledgling organization to become
its first salesman and early on a senior member of management. Henry,
his brother Joseph Taub, and I worked well together, and the business
began the growth that would lead ultimately to a status few companies
achieve.
Today ADP employs over 45,000 people in 23 countries and holds the
record for at least 10 percent growth in profits each year for 42 years
in a row. It is a record unmatched by any other publicly held company.
It is now also only one of four companies in our country to qualify as
a AAA rated company.
Thirty years at ADP in various assignments as head of marketing,
president, chairman, and CEO of ADP brought me to think my experience
might be of value for service in the public interest. In that
connection I decided to try to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Good
fortune came my way, and in 1982 I won a first term as a Senator.
My business experience and background credentials were principal
issues in a tough campaign. I learned a great deal over the three
decades at ADP, but a major factor in that success was my good luck to
have worked side by side with Henry Taub.
Henry was an unusually talented individual. He had superb instincts
buoyed by extraordinary intelligence. His modesty was widely known, and
a subtle demeanor was included. He was a strategic thinker and
responded calmly and directly with problem solving.
Additionally, he had an outstanding ability to bring people to his
views, earning enormous respect and allegiance. He was highly moral and
honest and encouraged trust in all who knew him. He was without
trappings, and with Henry Taub his word was his bond. He shared
affection and deep love with family and friends and could always be
counted upon for straight answers when questions arose.
Henry Taub was my junior by a few years, but through more than 50
years of friendship, his high personal standards set a target for
decency and quality in life. He will long be remembered as an example
for others to follow and I remain extremely grateful for his
contributions to my life.
I ask to have printed in the Record, a copy of the obituary that
appeared in the New York Times at the time of his passing.
The information follows.
[From the New York Times, Apr. 4, 2011]
Henry Taub, a Founder of a Payroll Firm That Became a Global Giant,
Dies at 83
(By Duff Wilson)
Henry Taub, a founder of the payroll company that grew into
the global giant Automatic Data Processing, died on Thursday
in Manhattan. He was 83 and lived in Tenafly, N.J.
The cause was complications of leukemia, his son Steven
said.
For many years Mr. Taub was also a co-owner of the New
Jersey Nets.
Starting in 1949 in an office above a Paterson, N.J., ice
cream parlor and then in a hotel basement, Mr. Taub and his
brother, Joseph, built the company on a reputation for
precision and timeliness. They were joined in the early years
by an aspiring salesman who had been their childhood friend--
Frank R. Lautenberg, now a Democratic senator from New
Jersey.
``The idea was not a brilliant idea, it was a good idea,
but what we did in terms of hard work made it,'' Senator
Lautenberg said in an interview on Sunday. ``Lots of seven-
day workweeks, lots of 12-hour days.''
Today, A.D.P, based in Roseland, N.J., has annual sales of
more than $9 billion and about 550,000 clients and is one of
the world's largest providers of business services. Back
then, however, it was a shoestring operation: the Taubs often
delivered payrolls by bus and cleaned their own offices at
night.
``Each of us had a function,'' Senator Lautenberg said.
``Henry was the strategic one in the firm and designed the
system, and Joe managed the operation, and I was the
marketer, the salesman.''
The company, initially called Automatic Payrolls, changed
its name to Automatic Data Processing in 1958 and went public
in 1961. The timing was perfect because I.B.M. had recently
begun marketing an attractively priced business computer
system that increased A.D.P.'s capabilities.
Mr. Taub was president of the company from 1949 to 1970,
chairman and chief executive from 1970 to 1977 and chairman
from 1977 to 1985. He was an honorary board chairman since
then. Senator Lautenberg left the company in 1983 after
winning election to the United States Senate. He is now the
longest-serving senator in New Jersey history.
Mr. Taub and his brother were among seven local businessmen
who were co-owners of the struggling Nets franchise in the
National Basketball Association for almost 20 years. The Nets
suffered injuries, coaching changes, many losses and
bickering among the owners, who were known as the Secaucus
Seven. When the owners tried to turn things around in 1996,
they selected the well-liked Mr. Taub as chairman. Two years
later, they sold the team to another group of New Jersey
businessmen.
Henry Taub was born in Paterson on Sept. 20, 1927, the son
of a junk dealer, and was raised in a working-class
neighborhood there. ``The streets were just filled with
people and kids and debate and excitement and, from my point
of view, intellectual fervor,'' he said in a 1996 interview
with The New York Times.
After skipping two grades in public school, Mr. Taub
graduated from New York University with a degree in
accounting in three years at 19 and joined an accounting
practice. When a client, a clothing business, did not issue
paychecks one week because of an illness, causing an employee
walkout, Mr. Taub had the idea for a new business: payroll
processing.
Mr. Taub retired from A.D.P. in the mid-1980s, when the
company said it was processing paychecks for a 10th of the
nation's work force. Afterward he became involved in an array
of community, philanthropic and other business endeavors.
With his wife he created the Henry and Marilyn Taub
Foundation, with assets estimated at $150 million.
He financed the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's
Disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University, the Taub
Center for Israel Studies at New York University and the Taub
Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel in Jerusalem.
Among other activities, he was president of the American
Technion Society, the United States affiliate of an Israeli
institute of technology, and was chairman of the institute's
international board of governors. He was chairman of the
United Israel Appeal from 1986 to 1990.
He was also a trustee of New York University and served on
the boards of Rite-Aid, Hasbro, Bank Leumi and Trust Company
of New York, Interfaith Hunger Appeal and the New York
Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater.
Mr. Taub is survived by his brother, Joseph; his wife of 53
years, Marilyn; their three children, Judith Gold, Steven and
Ira; and 10 grandchildren.
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