Chet Currier, 62; wrote column on mutual funds

NEW YORK -- Chet Currier, whose stock market and investing stories were fixtures in newspapers across the United States during a 29-year career at the Associated Press, died Sunday. He was 62.

Mr. Currier, who also worked for Bloomberg News, died of prostate cancer at a hospice in Santa Monica, Calif., his son Craig said.

For years, Mr. Currier reported the Wall Street story as it developed throughout the trading day, also turning out three weekly columns on the markets and personal finance, Weekly Wall Street, Ticker Talk, and On The Money. He later launched two columns on mutual fund investing for the AP.

He also turned a passion for crossword puzzles into a side career, creating more than 1,000 Sunday-size puzzles for the news service over 20 years.

Mr. Currier's writing was clear and concise, two critical elements in explaining the complexities of a stock market to the millons of readers who sought financial news from their local newspapers.

He reported about mutual funds before the average investor knew much about them. "I saw my job really as, first of all, kind of educating people that they didn't have to keep their money in a bank savings account any longer," he said during a 2005 interview that was part of an AP oral history project. "They had new choices."

"Chet Currier defined the Wall Street beat for The Associated Press at a time when millions of average Americans were becoming stock and mutual fund owners," said Jim Kennedy, AP vice president and director of strategic planning.

Kennedy said Currier's finest moment may have been his daily coverage of the stock market crash of October 1987. "He was able to put an unprecedented event into perspective almost immediately," Kennedy recalled.

Mr. Currier covered the stock market almost daily from 1974 until 1992 and then became a full-time columnist.

At Bloomberg, which Mr. Currier joined in 1999, he wrote columns twice a week.

Chester S. Currier was born in New York and lived most of his life in Darien, Conn. before moving to Southern California a year ago. He received his bachelor's degree from Amherst College.

Besides his son, he leaves his wife, Carol, and a daughter, Dana.