Biographical Information

2013

I was born in Brooklyn, New York on June 5, 1943 during World War II in which my father served in the Navy. Following me, were 4 others: my brother, Eric, and my sisters Enid, Christine and Ingrid in that order. Soon after turning 17, my mother died after a painful 3-year fight with cancer. Her death was hard on the family, but especially hard on my father, who never recovered emotionally. Among other things, it led to his losing his job which brought on financial hardships as well as other issues for him and the family. One positive thing that came out of those stressful events, was the forging of a strong and lasting bond among my siblings as brothers and sisters.

After some conflicted years in my youth, I found my path which included recognizing the importance of education and learning that further led to my interest in two primary avocations: writing and music.

Under a special program that Fordham University had created for those students who had to work and couldn't live on campus, was a  compact 4 year program that operated out of an old loft building in lower Manhattan.  There, I attended classes from 7 am to noon, ate a sandwich that I made at home, and then worked from noon to 7 pm as a bank  messenger for the First National City Bank, now Citibank.

In 1964, three months after graduating with an accounting degree, and during the Viet Nam War, I applied and was accepted into the Naval Officers Program and served 10 years (4 years active duty and 6 years active reserve) and served on a number of destroyer and destroyer escort ships in both the Atlantic and Pacific, including Pearl Harbor, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Commander before leaving the Navy.

After active duty, I joined the major international public accounting firm of Peat Marwick & Mitchell (now KPMG), moved to New York City and ultimately made partner in that firm. While at Peat Marwick I lived and worked in Brazil for 4 years. After 17 years with Peat Marwick I joined another major international public accounting firm, Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) also as a partner.

Then after 23 year years in public accounting I joined one of my clients as Chief Financial and Operations Officer. After that, I held other senior officer positions in a number of other companies. As a result of the notoriety I received for having written a business book entitled “Banking in the United States” I was engaged by an international banking group to establish a national bank in the US and became its President for a brief period of time until management of larger bank assumed control.  While this reads well, there was a period of about 12 years around the 1990s where I changed jobs numerous times making things strained, stressful and uncertain.  

Prior to getting married I traveled extensively, often to remote areas of the world. After meeting and marrying Vi (Violeta), a registered nurse, we started a family with 2 beautiful children, Leandra and Kerry. After marrying, I continued to travel, but now as a family with Vi and the children.  In addition to traveling, Vi and I enjoy camping and inland and ocean sailing. After living in New York and New Jersey, we settled in Greenwich, Connecticut buying an 1894 house, which we sorely underestimated the amount of work needed for renovation of the house and grounds. Never having picked up a hammer in my life, and being very tight on cash, the renovation took 7 ½ years of trial-and-error work which was a life experience, to say the least.

After retiring from the corporate world in 2011, I obtained the required financial and regulatory licenses and worked as an independent insurance agent and financial planner until 2014 at age 72. Then, not having enough retirement money saved, and wanting to remain active and productive, I started a property management business ultimately comprised of three houses for rental income. In effect therefore, I will never “retire.” In our faux retirement, Vi and I enjoy family, traveling, gardening and sailing. I continue writing and composing music as well as reading all the books that I never had the time to read before, especially books on physics.