Avon Paying

Girard Brown Henderson, a director of Avon Products, Inc., owes his wealth to the cosmetics firm's cheery, door-to-door sales technique, but he is not the kind of fellow that a stranger comes calling on. A 5-ft. 6-in., onetime barnstorming pilot, Henderson at 61 is one of the richest men in the U.S., and one of the most secretive. Though he has interests in half a dozen businesses ranging from investment companies to a community antenna television outfit in California and is a member of the New York Stock Exchange, he is rarely seen at his Wall Street office. His addresses in Mahwah, N.J., and Las Vegas are mere post-office box numbers; another residence, just west of Boulder, Colo., is entirely underground. Henderson, whose Underground World Home Corp. showed off a model house at the New York World's Fair last year, likes subterranean living.

Last week the New York Stock Exchange issued an "Insiders' Stockholdings" report that told a lot about Henderson's financial condition. In a deal closed two months ago, one of his holding companies--in which he has a 49% interest--sold 271,455 shares of Avon stock, worth $23 million. Spokesmen for the exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission called it "a normal market transaction." Even after that deal, Henderson still "indirectly owned" 1,035,410 Avon shares, worth $88 million; these are also held in the name of his holding company.

How did he get so much in this day of soaring taxes? The stake came from his father, who at the turn of the century invested in Avon Founder David McConnell's struggling perfume-selling business--and watched it grow. In the last decade, Avon's earnings have ballooned 485%, to $47.5 million in 1965, and its stock, after allowing for several splits, has gone up 19,000%.

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