50th Reunion
After graduating from Amherst, I entered Harvard Business School and received an accelerated degree in June, 1943. I flunked a physical program and was inducted into the army at Fort Devens hours after completing my last exam. Later, I was assigned to the 78th Infantry division and landed on Omaha Beach with their advance party on D3. The 78th was probably best known for its capture of the Schwam menauel Dam on the Roer River and as one of the infantry units across the Rhine at Remagen Bridge, before it collapsed. I was discharged from the army in November 1945 and had the dubious distinction of previous honorable discharges from the Marines, Navy and Air Force. Oddly enough during my tenure with the Air Force, I was stationed in Amherst at Massachusetts State for preflight training and received flight instruction at Westover Field shortly thereafter, I was reassigned to the Army "at the convenience of the government"; we had achieved air superiority over Europe and bodies were needed for the invasion.
I joined the investment banking firm of White, Weld & Company in 1946 and was a General Partner in 1957. At White, Weld, I specialized in providing financial services for companies engaged in oil and gas and related businesses. I spent a great deal of time in Western Canada and Texas and along the way had the opportunity to raise a lot of money for my former roommate, Hugh Liedtke. In1978, White, Weld merged with Merrill Lynch and I was Managing Director of that firm until my retirement in 1988. Emilie Jane Reese, Mills College, 1945, and I were married in January 1950 with the Reverend Clint Blake helping officiate. We have five children: Richard, Jeffrey, Jane, Ann and Kate, and four grandchildren. During my working days, we lived in Ridgewood, New Jersey, an easy commute to lower Manhattan. We bought a defunct children's camp in southwestern Massachusetts in 1970 and have been working ever since to convert it to our fair weather residence. Our cold weather escape is to the Sawgrass Community in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
