Here’s a scary thought: What if someone invented a time machine and traveled to Tidewater Virginia circa 1962 and persuaded a young Lynchburg broker working at his family’s business not to start his own investment firm or move from his native state? The void left in 21st-century Baltimore would be beyond belief.

That’s because the young man in question was Raymond A. “Chip” Mason, who founded Mason and Company that year and built it into the regional financial giant that is now Legg Mason Inc. Who could imagine that the College of William and Mary graduate with a quarter-million dollars of someone else’s money in his pocket was destined to reshape Baltimore’s financial landscape and produce Maryland’s first seat on the New York Stock Exchange?

Raymond A. “Chip” Mason, founder and former

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