1963

Little Robert, 14 months and the newest member of the Zlokower family, just popped over to see what Daddy is up to. I'm busy Dartmouth '63s, mon petit, and it seems that we haven't yet stopped having babies or planning sweet nuptials in that never ending march onward, yes onward, to the magic, lest I say it, ah, 50.

Jeff Galper informs me of the birth of Sarah last spring, a home delivery performed by a midwife no less. And here I loyally used Federal Express. Jeff and Nicandra live in Hinesburg, Vt., near South Burlington, where Jeff just bought an office condo and added a second associate to his rolling practice. He has a 19-year-old son, Josh, by a previous marriage, who is a sophomore at Connecticut College.

But away from the statistics of the heart and on to those of the business and professional world, where '63s toil with what seems at times superhuman endurance and ambition.

Launney Steffens, president of consumer markets at Merrill Lynch, told The New York Times that the stock market crash of 1987 notwithstanding, retail financial services are doing quite well, thank you. In a Times "Talking Business" column a full-length Q&A with photo Launney said the diversification into insurance, trust banking, and other specialized services has given large firms like Merrill Lynch products to sell individuals even during these uncertain times. Adds Launney, investors, even individual investors, are, if slowly, moving back into the stock market.

Meanwhile Lou Gerstner, the new head of RJR Nabisco and regular visitor to this column, got a full feature and pix in the prestigious but acerbic French daily Le Monde. Translation excerpt courtesy of Peter Bogin '81: "Discrete, almost secretive Gerstner is the opposite of the famous financiers that Wall Street is going crazy over. Not very talkative, he regularly refuses all requests for interviews and carefully avoids fashionable cocktail parties, gala openings, and political lunches in Washington. 'He is hopelessly serious and extremely annoying,' says one of his old friends from the very chic Dartmouth College which Gerstner finished in 1963 with high honors." So says Le Monde. Nonsense, say I.

Speaking of chic, the thing to do is mark October 13-14 in your datebook now. That's Dartmouth Homecoming. See you there and in the stands for the biggest game of the year.

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