Lawrence Adelman, a food, beverages and tobacco analyst at Dean Witter Reynolds who appeared on Institutional Investor’s All-America Research Team 28 times between 1978 and 1996, passed away on February 2 of complications from brain cancer. He was 75.
He is the father of David Adelman, who became Morgan Stanley’s director of Americas equity research in September after a highly successful career as an analyst covering many of the same companies on which his father reported. In fact, the younger Adelman accepted a position at Dean Witter so that he could work with his father. (Dean Witter merged with Morgan Stanley in 1997.)
“My father was by far my most significant mentor,” David Adelman told II upon his induction into the All-America Research Team Hall of Fame, in 2012. “We worked together very closely for many years and, simply put, he taught me how to be an analyst.”
Lawrence Adelman debuted on the All-America Research Team as a runner-up in Food in 1978, the year he joined Dean Witter from White Weld & Co. He climbed to third place two years later and was dubbed “the best analyst in terms of market timing” by one of that year’s buy-side supporters.
Adelman also earned a runner-up spot in the Beverages sector. He ranked in both categories in 1981 and 1982 as well, then added a third — Tobacco — in 1983 and 1984. He dropped from the roster the following year after being promoted to head of research but returned in 1989 and would appear in at least one sector — and often two — every year through 1996. He retired in 2002.
Money managers interviewed in 1981 credited Adelman with being among the first analysts to perceive the relationship between commodities prices and food stocks. This “very diligent” researcher was “market and performance oriented,” they told II.