[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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