Dodge was the first of three children born to Joseph Cheeseman Dodge, a poster artist, and Gertrude Hester Crow. He grew up with his brother and sister on middle-class Kirby Street in Detroit, Michigan. Inspired by the hiking and camping trips his father often took him on, Dodge's earliest ambition was to be a forest ranger. His mother knew better stating, "I'm sure Joseph is going to be a banker. He is the only boy of his age who doesn't like to get his hands dirty.""World Trade- Man with a Puzzle." Times Magazine, Jan. 24, 1995 After graduating from Detroit Central High School in 1908, Dodge worked at the Standard Accident Insurance Company as a clerk until 1909, when he began work at the Central Savings Bank. He quickly rose through the ranks, starting as a messenger boy, then bookkeeper (while teaching himself accounting), then Michigan's youngest state bank examiner (at age 20). For five years Dodge excelled at his post so well as to attract the attention of Bank Commissioner Edward Doyle, who appointed him as his assistant.
