(FORTUNE Magazine) – The ghost of a predecessor has come knocking on the door of James Robinson III, beleaguered CEO of American Express. The spirit takes the form of an oil portrait of Ralph Reed, who put the company back on the global travel map in the years following World War II and presided over the launch of the still profitable green card -- actually, it started life purple -- in 1958. The inspirational painting came as a recent gift from Reed's only child, Phyllis Ann Reed. Says she of the portrait -- and the company's travails: ''Who knows? Maybe it will bring them a little luck. I hope so. I'm a stockholder.'' Robinson dictated a polite thank-you note. ''Your dad's picture will be alongside that of Henry Wells and James Fargo and the others who led and built American Express,'' he wrote. But that's not quite where it ended up. Another likeness of Reed already hangs outside the 47th-floor corporate secretary's office at the company's New York City headquarters. Ms. Reed's gift went to the fifth-floor archives.

Ralph Reed became president of Amex in 1944 and often took his daughter with him on treks around the world (see photo of her returning from a trip to Europe). He retired in 1961, when Amex presented him with the painting, and died in 1968 at 77. The portrait hung in the Palm Beach home of his widow, Edna, until her death in May at 96. Phyllis (''I'm in my 60s'') had no room for it in her nearby apartment and shipped it to Robinson. Whatever he really thinks of the painting, Robinson could surely use more customers like Ms. Reed. She carries only the American Express green card.