“Colleges and universities

the Depression, but his comments are equally valid for people today who find themselves without jobs during periods of corporate downsizing and other economic dislocations. Today’s thriving small- shop graphic arts and desktop publishing firms, which crank out business cards, flyers, logos and letterheads for self-employed people throughout the country, attest to the lasting validity of Hill’s idea.
5
Dan Halpin is Daniel D. Halpin was born June 14, 1906, and grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. He was apparently the first student from
New Haven to attend Notre Dame, and on the way out on the train, he stayed up all night in hopes of seeing Indians (he didn’t).
Once on campus, he found several jobs to help defray the cost of his tuition and living expenses. His parents were in no position to pay his college costs, but an uncle, who owned Dunster Books in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, gave him a number of leather-bound books on the classics, and he was thus known to have one of the finest personal libraries on the campus.
Halpin was fascinated by accounts about the famous Knute
Rockne and the Notre Dame football team, which led to his choice of
Notre Dame for his college education. He worked his way up the athletic manager system until he was named senior manager at the end of the 1930 school year. He was Rockne’s last manager, and he also served as Rockne’s secretary and what would today be considered a business manager. He became close to the Rockne family and assisted them frequently in their liaison with the university.
Halpin’s leadership applied to more than sports. After a year or two, he realized the campus needed a laundry service, so he started one. He also created the logo for the business, and every piece of their equipment had stenciled on it La UND ry.” The business was so profitable that the University eventually took it over and has run it ever since.
After the tragic Rockne plane crash in March 1931, Halpin was deputized by the president of the university to fly out to Kansas and escort Rockne’s remains back to Notre Dame. Upon his graduation in
June 1931, he was hired by MGM to serve as the Rockne expert for the film “Knute Rockne of Notre Dame.”

With that behind him, he returned to the East coast with his new bride, Margaret Hyland Halpin, and rented an apartment at Riverside Drive in Manhattan at the height of the Depression. His first job was selling hearing aids on 42nd street in New York City. As
Napoleon Hill relates in Think and Grow Rich!, Halpin was so skilled a salesman that he outsold the major brand “Dictograph,” which advertised heavily on the radio. Dictograph hired him away and made him a sales manager, then, vice president. His first child was born in, and the family was financially well off at that time.
Halpin’s son, Dan Halpin, Jr, says, As to Napoleon Hill, he the elder Halpin] mentioned him frequently, and as I recall it, Dad was the best man at Mr. Hill’s son’s Blair Hills wedding. If memory serves me, young Mr. Hill was born without ears, and my Dad was instrumental in providing him with a hearing aid, which allowed for some ability to hear. Seethe account on page 39
.] Subsequent to that they became friends and remained so, as far as I know. I do remember that he always spoke highly of Napoleon Hill and was quite proud of his inclusion in Think and Grow Rich Dad mentioned that he thought
Think and Grow Rich! was one of the first of along line of great motivational books for the businessman.”
The Halpins stayed in Manhattan until 1940. His next move was to southern New Jersey and the town of Haddonfield. He was hired as vice president and general manager of sales at the Radio Corporation of America in Camden, NJ. His new role was to market and merchandise anew entertainment system called television. He spent the next 12 years with RCA. In 1952, the family moved to Montclair,
N. J, where he became vice president and general manager of DuMont
Television. He ended his career as an account executive with Young &
Rubicam Advertising, specializing in the General Electric television account.
While his career had many firsts, he was duly proud of being the first sales executive to convince a major hotel chain to put a television in each of its rooms, in the early s. He was the creative genius who convinced owners of television sets that life would be better if they owned two televisions—the second being known as a “mother-in- law TV. As a result, RCA sold millions of sets. He was also known in the industry as the primary force behind the sales strategy for the

introduction and merchandising of color television. He was truly a pioneer in the early days of the television industry.
Halpin died in his sleep, at age 63, on August 21, 1970, about six weeks before Napoleon Hill passed away in Greenville, South
Carolina, which he made his retirement home.
6

Download 3.05 Mb.

Share with your friends: