It wasn't too many years ago (only 119) that CFSI's founder and first president gave the prestigious institute's first commencement address. At the time, not many people had heard of Gerald Philip McFadden. Most didn't realize that as they stood in the bitter cold, huddled together by the common bond of the desire to make money quick, that they were witnessing the birth of McFaddenism. I know what you're thinking... 'McFaddenism wasn't just born... and why haven't I heard of this before?' The origins of McFaddenism are a secret as tightly kept by CFSI graduates as the location of the Holy Grail is kept by the Masons. In a way, the origins and secrets of McFaddenism are the Grail of money making.
We all aspire to it, but if one can actually conduct his life by the tenets of McFaddenism, making money will become as easy tying one's shoes. The Law of the Invisible Triangle proves that if money exists, which I think we can all agree it does, it can be made. Now, I don't mean to say that money is not matter; it cannot be created or destroyed. It can, however, be redistributed. CFSI will teach you how to ensure that the redistribution of this money has a direct, and speedy, benefit to you. But I digress...
Jerry McFadden founded CFSI in Cleveland, Ohio, not only because it was an up and coming metropolis, but because he was inspired by the presidential election of 1888. This election pitted Grover Cleveland against Ohio native Benjamin Harrison. Although Cleveland won the popular vote, the electoral system made Harrison the winner. McFadden decided that if elections and democracy were not bound by logic, but by a set of rules, that money making too should not be bound by logic. He decided to create the rules of making money quick and he founded CFSI.
Not only its location, but the timing of CFSI's founding was very important to McFadden. In his travels, in the South, at the end of the Civil War, McFadden found himself in the Commonwealth of Virgina. It was here that he not only became one of the richest men in the nation, but also developed a profound respect for our country's history and, in particular, our country's founder. It was his respect and admiration for George Washington that led McFadden to set the date of the first CFSI graduation for October 9, 1888; the same day the Washington Monument was opened to the public, in Washington, DC. The words Jerry McFadden spoke on that fateful day are as true now as they were then: "As we pay respect to those who sacrificed before us, we must also pay respect to ourselves."
Walter F. Trurock
CFSI Class of '63
