Advertising Firm Ex-Executive Dies
STAMFORD, Conn. — Sigurd S. Larmon, former chairman of Young & Rubicam Inc., the largest independent advertising agency in the world, has died at 95.
Larmon, who died Jan. 1 in Stamford, was credited by a firm spokesman with expanding the advertising-communications company into the third largest agency in worldwide billings at the time he retired.
During his tenure, the number of employees at the agency increased from 652 to 2,736 and annual billings grew from $40 million in 1942 to $280 million in 1962, then an incredibly large amount.
The son of a small-town banker, Larmon was born in Stanton, Iowa. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1914.
Larmon joined Young & Rubicam in 1929, became its president in 1942, and rose to chairman in 1944, succeeding Raymond Rubicam, who with John Orr Young founded the firm in 1923. Larmon retired from the agency in 1962.
He was a close friend of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower and served in the 1952 and 1956 campaigns as national vice chairman of Citizens for Eisenhower.
He also was a three-term member of the United States Advisory Commission on Information, served on the National Defense Executive Reserve, and was a vice president and trustee of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
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