Mickey Straus Makes a Pointe

Last summer Fortune profiled Mickey Straus '60 in a "Personal Investing" feature that praised both his chairmanship of New York City's American Ballet Theatre and his stewardship of Weiss Peck & Greer's $200 million Tudor Fund. In the first instance he had "steered the company into the black—no small feat, given the major cuts in federal aid." In the second he had guided his firm's fund to a 252 percent gain over five years. Of course last October's "Black Monday" nibbled away at that growth, and led Straus to say, "We're in uncharted waters, but I'm optimistic that there could be a reasonably strong '88."

In our photo, however, he was not talking Wall Street finance, he was talking Hanover ballet, for it was Mickey Straus who made possible the new Straus Dance Studio in the recently opened Berry Sports Center. "It combines my two great passions, other than my wife and my work: dance and Dartmouth," Straus told his appreciative audience.

This marks the first time dance has had its own space at Dartmouth. Previously dancers shared Webster Hall with other departments and, as artist-in-residence and dance professor Joseph "Pepe" DeChiazzia says, sometimes it got so cold "even the pianist had to wear gloves." He adds that dance classes are always packed and the new studio is now operating from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m.