Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
ANOTHER GREAT ONE PASSES: JAMES FUCHS
Not too long ago I wrote a column about my friend George Steinbrenner’s passing. In that column I mentioned his role in starting the Silver Shield Foundation.
Since then a number of readers have asked about this foundation. If you have the time, visit the website: www.silvershieldfoundation.org
Steinbrenner’s partner in birthing this foundation was the famous Olympic medalist, James Fuchs. Jim died on October 8, 2010. Many Americans knew him as an athlete who represented our nation in both the discus and shot put. His story captured the attention of news organizations because he had a leg injury that required he develop a new way to compete in the shot put. He called his method “the sideways glide”.
Wikipedia notes that Fuchs “set world records…and completely dominated shot-putting over a two-year span in the 1950’s in the years between winning bronze medals at both the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki.”
At the Pan American games in 1951 held in Buenos Aires Jim won gold medals in both the Shot Put and the Discus competition.
So often we think of athletes as leaders. In the case of Jim Fuchs this was certainly the case. When I worked in international finance I had the privilege of meeting Jim and engaging his firm, Fuchs, Cuthrell & Company. On occasion, we would have lunch together at the “21 Club” in New York City. The place where we dined had no importance beyond the fact that it was wall-to-wall with “movers and shakers” every day. When Jim would enter the main room for lunch it would take some time for him to reach his table. The diners all seemed to know him, and to like him. His large stature and beaming smile made everyone feel at ease.
If Jim Fuchs had wanted a political career, he could have easily had one. He would have had neither difficulty raising money nor engaging large numbers of his wealthy and influential friends in support of any campaign.
But Jim had a nice reserve of modesty. He preferred helping others. In his main business enterprise he helped people who were seeking employment. Many of those men and women had been “out placed” and his firm was assigned the job of helping them re-establish their identities, prepare better resumes, deal with family and professional disappointment, and get back out into the world. In this endeavor, Jim and his associates were incredibly successful.
But it will perhaps be his work with the Silver Shield that brought him the most respect and admiration. Yet this foundation started out with every intention of doing good things anonymously. In New York City it is difficult to do anything important anonymously. So it is that Silver Shield is now recognized and heralded for the work it undertakes.
Jim’s work as chairman and executive director of Silver Shield had to be one of his most lasting accomplishments. The foundation provided each of 900 children of victims of the September terrorist attacks with $20,000 in funds to be used toward their education,
I am pleased to have the opportunity through this column to introduce you to a great American, James Fuchs, and to join his friends and colleagues in mourning his passing.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
TAVERN on the GREEN NOSTALGIA
Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
TAVERN ON THE GREEN NOSTALGIA
This column is one of nostalgia. For readers who had occasion to visit New York City for any reason in the late 1970s and 1980s you may have dined at one of the city’s most famous restaurants: Tavern on the Green.
I have not thought recently about the restaurant but a mention of it in one of the Sunday papers brought back a flood of memories.
In the early 1970’s, as an executive of a Midwest based banking organization, I traveled often to New York City on business. As is often the case with businessmen, I found a restaurant and bar that I particularly enjoyed. It was called Maxwell’s Plum. It was a very ornate place with a long and popular bar that diners passed on their way to a table. Maxwell’s Plum was the preferred “hangout” for young New Yorkers so if you went there to dine you really did have to fight your way back to the tables in the rear of the restaurant. In was not at all uncommon for the bar crowd to be 3-4 people deep.
I remember the restaurant had loudly colored stain glass as a ceiling, deep and rich woods surrounded the tables and comprised the bar, and brass rails were everywhere.
When my career moved me from the Midwest to a bank in New York City, I looked forward to entertaining clients at Maxwell’s Plum. But when I arrived I found that the owner of Maxwell’s Plum had taken a huge step in opening a new restaurant on the site of a famous old restaurant called Tavern on the Green. It was the talk of the town.
Warner Leroy, son of fabled movie producer Mervyn Leroy, had created an almost completely glass building in Central Park. It was a restaurant where there was no such thing as a “bad table”.
With all the beautiful surroundings of Central Park visible from every table, you might have thought he would be satisfied. Not Warner Leroy. He very carefully strung small lights around every branch on every tree that could be seen from inside his restaurant. Those dining after dark were treated to a magnificent sight of the park all aglow with little white lights.
LeRoy did not stop there. In case some might look “up” rather than “out” he had the ceilings painted in multiple pastels and decorated as if they were the tops of wedding cakes. The intricate ceiling work captured the imagination of every diner.
To top it off, LeRoy purchased fabulous (and huge) chandeliers in many different colored crystals. They were the largest I have seen outside of Europe. At least ten of them hung from the ceiling in what he named “The Crystal Room.”
Some might argue that LeRoy inherited his father’s gift for “staging”. Others did argue that he wanted to draw your attention away from the average quality of the food. But it was the rare diner who ever complained about his visit to Tavern on the Green.
It was never about food.
It was an experience.
It was always an event.
It was memorable.
Time seems to bring an end to all things. As I read about the Tavern being turned into a Visitors’ Center for Central Park I felt a sense of sadness. It will be a wonderful place for people to go for information on the Park, to arrange for carriage rides and tours, to get maps of locations like Strawberry Fields. But in so many ways it will never replace the legendary Tavern on the Green.
The Tavern was the scene for the New York City Marathon. The Tavern was a place to bring out all the excitement of New York City, including its magical nature. If it was raining, snowing, or sunny you never regretted being at Tavern on the Green. When you departed there was always a horse and buggy available out front for a quiet and romantic ride through the Park.
There are places that we think will never cease to exist. I would have bet that the Tavern would have been one of them. How wrong I would have been. When I visit NYC I do not think I will venture into the new Visitors’ Center. It would ruin memories.
It is not one of our society’s greatest virtues that so many things in our past are demolished, reinvented or changed in major ways as part of “moving on” with life. I suppose that is why those of us who are a “certain age” do enjoy living with our own memories and often avoid engaging with new things.
Take a moment to think about your own path.
Where were those places that meant so much to you? How long has it been since you treated yourself to a return visit?
Better hurry.
Your special place may, like Tavern on the Green, simply be reborn one day as a Visitors’ Center.
…Jack Blair
TAVERN ON THE GREEN NOSTALGIA
This column is one of nostalgia. For readers who had occasion to visit New York City for any reason in the late 1970s and 1980s you may have dined at one of the city’s most famous restaurants: Tavern on the Green.
I have not thought recently about the restaurant but a mention of it in one of the Sunday papers brought back a flood of memories.
In the early 1970’s, as an executive of a Midwest based banking organization, I traveled often to New York City on business. As is often the case with businessmen, I found a restaurant and bar that I particularly enjoyed. It was called Maxwell’s Plum. It was a very ornate place with a long and popular bar that diners passed on their way to a table. Maxwell’s Plum was the preferred “hangout” for young New Yorkers so if you went there to dine you really did have to fight your way back to the tables in the rear of the restaurant. In was not at all uncommon for the bar crowd to be 3-4 people deep.
I remember the restaurant had loudly colored stain glass as a ceiling, deep and rich woods surrounded the tables and comprised the bar, and brass rails were everywhere.
When my career moved me from the Midwest to a bank in New York City, I looked forward to entertaining clients at Maxwell’s Plum. But when I arrived I found that the owner of Maxwell’s Plum had taken a huge step in opening a new restaurant on the site of a famous old restaurant called Tavern on the Green. It was the talk of the town.
Warner Leroy, son of fabled movie producer Mervyn Leroy, had created an almost completely glass building in Central Park. It was a restaurant where there was no such thing as a “bad table”.
With all the beautiful surroundings of Central Park visible from every table, you might have thought he would be satisfied. Not Warner Leroy. He very carefully strung small lights around every branch on every tree that could be seen from inside his restaurant. Those dining after dark were treated to a magnificent sight of the park all aglow with little white lights.
LeRoy did not stop there. In case some might look “up” rather than “out” he had the ceilings painted in multiple pastels and decorated as if they were the tops of wedding cakes. The intricate ceiling work captured the imagination of every diner.
To top it off, LeRoy purchased fabulous (and huge) chandeliers in many different colored crystals. They were the largest I have seen outside of Europe. At least ten of them hung from the ceiling in what he named “The Crystal Room.”
Some might argue that LeRoy inherited his father’s gift for “staging”. Others did argue that he wanted to draw your attention away from the average quality of the food. But it was the rare diner who ever complained about his visit to Tavern on the Green.
It was never about food.
It was an experience.
It was always an event.
It was memorable.
Time seems to bring an end to all things. As I read about the Tavern being turned into a Visitors’ Center for Central Park I felt a sense of sadness. It will be a wonderful place for people to go for information on the Park, to arrange for carriage rides and tours, to get maps of locations like Strawberry Fields. But in so many ways it will never replace the legendary Tavern on the Green.
The Tavern was the scene for the New York City Marathon. The Tavern was a place to bring out all the excitement of New York City, including its magical nature. If it was raining, snowing, or sunny you never regretted being at Tavern on the Green. When you departed there was always a horse and buggy available out front for a quiet and romantic ride through the Park.
There are places that we think will never cease to exist. I would have bet that the Tavern would have been one of them. How wrong I would have been. When I visit NYC I do not think I will venture into the new Visitors’ Center. It would ruin memories.
It is not one of our society’s greatest virtues that so many things in our past are demolished, reinvented or changed in major ways as part of “moving on” with life. I suppose that is why those of us who are a “certain age” do enjoy living with our own memories and often avoid engaging with new things.
Take a moment to think about your own path.
Where were those places that meant so much to you? How long has it been since you treated yourself to a return visit?
Better hurry.
Your special place may, like Tavern on the Green, simply be reborn one day as a Visitors’ Center.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS
Notes of Concern…
…Jack Blair
BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS
What would happen if:
1. You could not obtain a mortgage without having saved a 20% down payment prior to applying?
2. Your mortgage would not be granted if your required monthly payment of principal and interest exceeded 30% of your monthly income?
3. Your mortgage application would not be approved if the cost of the home were more than 3 times your annual salary?
4. People were reminded that their home purchase/investment could easily be the single most important piece of their eventual retirement security and learn that borrowing against that investment in good times could lead to disaster in bad times?
5. One of every person’s major goals was to actually payoff their mortgage and own their home free and clear?
Back in the “good old days” when I started a career in banking those were the rules. For the sake of discussion let’s define the “good old days” as a time when people were helped by banks that had pragmatic rules about lending, saw a requirement to counsel borrowers not to get in over their head, and were able to anticipate not only the adverse affect on borrowers of easy lending policies but also the long term adverse affect that could befall the bank and their stockholders.
These were simple and pragmatic and responsible approaches to lending. They took into account both the best interests of the consumer and the investor.
In my view, the government today went to great lengths to save the banks that made very questionable lending decisions and they saved those institutions with taxpayer dollars.
The government failed to extend the same level of courtesy to the taxpayer whose money saved the banks. Many of our fellow tax payers are no losing their primary residence to foreclosure or seeing their retirement nest egg depleted in order to pay for their home, or watching the value of their investment shrink almost every week and the selling price of their home reduced to an amount less than the loan they are carrying on it.
Some would call this progress. I would call it idiocy.
Where is the average person who can bring common sense to public service in our country? The government has run amok.
…Jack Blair
BRING BACK THE GOOD OLD DAYS
What would happen if:
1. You could not obtain a mortgage without having saved a 20% down payment prior to applying?
2. Your mortgage would not be granted if your required monthly payment of principal and interest exceeded 30% of your monthly income?
3. Your mortgage application would not be approved if the cost of the home were more than 3 times your annual salary?
4. People were reminded that their home purchase/investment could easily be the single most important piece of their eventual retirement security and learn that borrowing against that investment in good times could lead to disaster in bad times?
5. One of every person’s major goals was to actually payoff their mortgage and own their home free and clear?
Back in the “good old days” when I started a career in banking those were the rules. For the sake of discussion let’s define the “good old days” as a time when people were helped by banks that had pragmatic rules about lending, saw a requirement to counsel borrowers not to get in over their head, and were able to anticipate not only the adverse affect on borrowers of easy lending policies but also the long term adverse affect that could befall the bank and their stockholders.
These were simple and pragmatic and responsible approaches to lending. They took into account both the best interests of the consumer and the investor.
In my view, the government today went to great lengths to save the banks that made very questionable lending decisions and they saved those institutions with taxpayer dollars.
The government failed to extend the same level of courtesy to the taxpayer whose money saved the banks. Many of our fellow tax payers are no losing their primary residence to foreclosure or seeing their retirement nest egg depleted in order to pay for their home, or watching the value of their investment shrink almost every week and the selling price of their home reduced to an amount less than the loan they are carrying on it.
Some would call this progress. I would call it idiocy.
Where is the average person who can bring common sense to public service in our country? The government has run amok.
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