MANSFIELD — David Eichinger of Mansfield, Ohio was selected as one of 10 recipients of the Merrill Lynch David Brady Award, selected from 120 nominees across a firm of roughly 50,000 employees.
It is one of the most meaningful honors the firm bestows.
“This award celebrates Merrill teammates who exemplify integrity, client commitment and leadership — qualities David [Eichinger] has demonstrated throughout his remarkable 42-year Merrill career,” said Will McReynolds, Director and Merrill Lynch Wealth Management Market Executive.
The David Brady Award is named for a Merrill Lynch advisor who was killed on 9/11 while meeting with a client at the World Trade Center. His family established the award in his memory.
At the awards dinner, which took place in the observatory of One World Trade Center, Eichinger was seated next to Brady’s former business partner, who was not in the office that day, and the son of the client Brady was with when he died.
Brady’s own children, now adults, presented the awards.
“It was really moving to meet these people and to kind of get to know him through them,” Eichinger said.
Eichinger’s story is a Mansfield tale
Among the other nine award recipients who hailed from larger cities such as Palo Alto, Philadelphia, Dallas, and New York. Eichinger stood out as a representative of a different kind of American city.
“This doesn’t happen very often to the Mansfield, Ohio’s of the world,” Eichinger said.
Community involvement has been central to Eichinger’s identity since the early part of his life. His parents were deeply involved in Mansfield’s community life through volunteer work at the Chamber of Commerce, Renaissance Theater, the United Way, and more.
“It really was just kind of in our blood,” Eichinger said. “We grew up doing that.”
Eichinger has served on the Chamber/RCDG board, and was instrumental in building the Franciscan Center at St. Peter’s Parish. He also helped lead the transition of MedCentral Health System to OhioHealth.
He recently served on the board of directors for the Ashbrook Center and continues to work on the statewide board for OhioHealth.
In the 1990’s, he helped launch “Party in the Park,” a downtown summer gathering designed to keep workers in the city after hours.
Eichinger’s lifetime of community service led to being honored in 2021 with the Chairman’s Award from the Richland Area Chamber and Economic Development organization.
“I always kid and say if you say ‘yes’ once, you will be involved in everything,” he said.
Professionally, Eichinger’s team, which includes partners Brinton Brafford and Jammi McClead, has earned a spot on the Forbes Best-in-State Wealth Management Teams list four consecutive years.
“We’ve built a good culture. We have a few philosophies. Details matter. We want to be a client’s first call. We want to have clients think of us for everything, not just their financial planning, estate planning, asset management, banking, all those obvious things we do, but we want them to think about us for anything,” Eichinger said.
“They need a plumber? Call us. Do they need tickets to something? Give us a shot at it. We want to be really integrated in their overall life.”
A changing of the guard
Eichinger officially retired March 1 after two years of transitioning his practice to Brafford and McClead.
He plans to remain on several boards, continue with his golf, fly-fishing, and social clubs, and spend more time with his three children and eight grandchildren scattered across the country.
After 46 years of mapping out other people’s retirements, he says his own is well-planned.
“It’ll be very unusual after 46 years, but it’s all good. It’s great.”