About Dr. Halstead

Born in Hartford, Connecticut (as was J.P. Morgan several years earlier), Dr. John Halstead received a B.S. degree in Finance, summa cum laude, from the University of Connecticut, a M.S. degree in Finance (tied for second in graduating class) from Boston College, a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law, and a Ph.D. in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from the University of Connecticut.  He formally taught economics and finance at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.  Labeled a “financial wizard” and “whiz kid” in the press, Dr. Halstead has appeared in a number of popular press publications across the U.S. such as the Beverly Hills Weekly, Boston Business Journal, and Telluride Weekly Planet.  In addition, he has appeared on some TV programs and has been heard on some radio shows.  Dr. Halstead was the focus of a 2005 documentary film which is listed at the IMDb (Internet Movie Database), a subsidiary of Amazon.

 

Here’s a congratulatory, signed letter from former President George W. Bush (the 43rd President of the United States) to Dr. Halstead pertaining to, amongst other items, the economy (please note: some personal information has been redacted from the letter):

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Dr. Halstead is a descendant of Myles Standish who bravely arrived in America from England aboard the Mayflower in 1620 after a more than two-month journey across the Atlantic Ocean.  Myles Standish, a co-founder of Duxbury, Massachusetts, served as the first military leader of the Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts and later its treasurer.  A courageous risk-taker, Myles Standish is arguably one of the most important individuals to ever set foot on American soil.

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Dr. Halstead is also a descendant of Robert Pennoyer.  Robert Pennoyer was the youngest brother of William Pennoyer, a London merchant, who died childless in 1670 since all five of his children predeceased him.  William Pennoyer’s will established the Pennoyer Scholarship at Harvard University for certain descendants of Robert Pennoyer and for residents of the region that was formally known as the New Haven Colony (portions of modern-day Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware).  The Pennoyer Scholarship is possibly the oldest U.S. scholarship in existence today.  Income from the Pennoyer Trust, a testamentary trust established through William Pennoyer’s will, was used, in part, during some time in the 17th century to essentially keep Harvard University financially afloat.  William Pennoyer was a unique trailblazer in financing higher education since he dissented from the overwhelming consensus of the day and firmly believed that higher education should not be just for the well-to-do.  You can learn more about William Pennoyer, Robert Pennoyer, and many others in Dr. Raymond H. Lounsbury’s 1971 non-fiction book, Pennoyer Brothers – Colonization, Commerce, Charity in the Seventeenth Century.  The book is available at, for example, a number of libraries such as the Boston Public Library, the University of Chicago Library, the Princeton University Library, and the UCLA Library.  Dr. Lounsbury (1903-1997), Dr. Halstead’s late great-great uncle, received his Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University in 1929 (Dissertation title: "Cyclical Fluctuations in Industrial Output, 1921-1927"), was formerly a member of the Vermont Society of Mayflower Descendants, and used to teach economics at, for example, Cornell University and Dartmouth College.