Harold E. Doley Jr. was born in New Orleans in 1947. BlackPast's biography describes a Louisiana family whose history included free people of color before the Civil War. He attended segregated schools and studied accounting and business administration at Xavier University, where he organized an investment club. He entered the securities business with Bache & Company in 1968.
In 1973, Doley purchased a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. The exchange's own history identifies him as the first Black member to self-fund the purchase. Joseph Searles had become the exchange's first Black member in 1970, and both milestones hold their own place in the record.
Doley founded Doley Securities in 1975. His biography at the Council for Inclusive Capitalism describes his work executing orders for other exchange members and serving institutional clients, along with teaching economics and related business subjects at Southern University in New Orleans between 1970 and 1977.
He later served in the federal government. In 1982, he became the founding director of the Minerals Management Service. From 1983 to 1985, he represented the United States at the African Development Bank and Fund with ambassadorial rank, a post concerned with U.S. participation in a development-finance institution.
Historic preservation became another part of his public record. Doley and his wife, Helena, owned and lived at Villa Lewaro in Irvington, New York, from 1993 to 2018. The estate had been built for entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker. Before its sale, a preservation and conservation easement was donated to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, protecting exterior structures, landscaping and significant interior rooms.
The New Voices Foundation purchased the property in 2018, and the National Trust describes ongoing planning for its future use with preservationists and historians. Maintaining a historic place involves successive owners, legal protections and specialist knowledge, and the Doleys' stewardship forms one chapter in that history.
