1973

Harley Kaufman is sure making up for lost time on the correspondence front. Quite thoughtfully, he sent along an article about Leon Black from the February 21 issue of The New York Times, and he noted that he "had the honor of having been one of Leon's roommates in 310 Gile Hall in our freshman year." The article, en tided "Dealmakerin the 1980's, Empire Builder in the 1990's," is a profile of Leon, for whom Warren Buffett was a mere benchmark. Quotes from Carl Icahn provide local color. I learned a new nickname for Leon, "The Black Prince of Wall Street" (catchy, isn't it?), but I personally favor the description offered by the author: "formal but unpretentious, confident but a worrier, a touch shy but well known for a nasty temper."

The article traces Leon from Dartmouth to Harvard Business School to Drexel, where he helped launch the junk-bond boom, to his investment firm, Apollo, where he scarfed up the remains of that market in collapse. Leon now rides high on his market insights, having either sold at a profit or swapped junk bonds into equity of restructured companies, often gaining control in the process. In addition to his equity interests, Leon is senior partner in Lion Advisors, garnering significant management fees for sharing his expertise in the "vulture capital" market.

Oftentimes it is easy to lose sight of the human being in someone as accomplished as Leon, especially given the catchy phrases that sell newspapers and quote well in class columns. Leon is, however, a very loyal friend and a strong family man with four children, aged one to eight. Congratulations on success well-earned, Leon!

Speaking of nice guys finishing first, the College's clipping service has also dug up news that Mike Onderick has been named to head Koch Industries Inc.'s natural gas activities. Previously, Mike was vice president of Koch Hydrocarbon. Also, Bruce Rosenfield has been elected chair of the Philadelphia Bar Association Section on Probate and Trust Law. In real life, Bruce is chairman of the estates department of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis.

Bob Barr must feel guilty for not sharing the news he gets on those little green cards because he took the time to drop me a note: "Spent a fun-filled February vacation week with family at Sunday River in Maine. Chrisand Janette Ley couldn't make it, but JonLow was in attendance. We managed to play a little beer pong at Fuzzy Thurston's ('72). Jon and Fuzzy were more rusty than I was. The skiing was superb."

I wasn't sure whether the rest of the letter, an update on 20th Reunion thoughts (June '94), was for me alone or to be shared with all of you. Then I remembered how audacious I had been to publish Bob's joke letter when he first joined the Alumni Fund, and I thought, "He'd expect it of me." So, I must tell you all that Cal Bowie thought up the idea of bringing together die work of artists and architects from the classes of '73, '74, and '75 in a gallery at the Hop. Sounds great to me. Let's hope Bob and Cal can pull it off! If not, it will certainly give us something to ride Bob about.

There is a long break between this column and the next, so this is my last opportunity to plug the Alumni Fund. At last count, there were three of our own flesh-and-blood sons and daughters applying for admission to the class of '97. If we didn't have a vested interest in the College's finances before, we certainly do now. We've turned in some pretty impressive performances these last few years. Let's keep up the good work!

10 Lantern Lane, Easton, MA 02375

Leon Black's nickname is "The Black Prince of Wall Street." DONNA TIHAIAS '73