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 Don Fine, my dear friend of almost 56 years, was a man of notable generosity, intelligence, wit, and high
achievement ─ and he was unusually humble ─ as the song says, "a
soft-spoken guy."
Donny (as he was known all his life by his
many friends) earned a Ph.D. from Columbia
University and had an exemplary career in the financial world as one of
Wall Street's most esteemed economists. He was the Chief Market
Analyst and Managing Director of a division of Chase Manhattan Bank, his sole employer
for 32 years, and a frequent and "energetic and well-received" speaker
(according
to a colleague
at Chase) on Federal Reserve policy and
the economic outlook. His economic forecasts
were quoted almost daily for years in the pages of the Wall St.
Journal and the New York Times. Thus, Donny was one of
the most influential members of our class.
As one of his colleagues said, "Don was a hell of a guy." |
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Donny was a loyal fraternity
man; at his beloved University of Michigan, where he did his
undergraduate work, he was in Sigma Alpha Mu (or "Sammy"), and
before that, at
Oceanside High School,
he was my fraternity
brother in Alpha Theta.
As an adult, Donny had no family other than cousins.* He never
married, but he traveled the country and the world, lived the life
of a happy |
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bachelor and was never lonely. He maintained close, lifelong relationships with many of
his fraternity brothers among lots of other dear friends from all
stages of his life.
Donny definitely lived his
life to the fullest, and his zest for living focused primarily on
his passions for sports (most especially, University of Michigan
football), photography (mainly of natural beauty like our
national parks), travel (particularly in Asia and the South Pacific),
model trains, rock 'n' roll music, fine food, and his many, many friends,
both men and women.
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Many of the photographs
shown below were provided courtesy of Don's closest first cousin, Greg Iger,
of Bakersfield, California. (Several dates are estimated.) You can click on the link provided at the bottom of this page for
Greg's extensive and loving online memorial tribute to Donny
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with lots more photographs and stories from Donny's life. |
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c.
1946 |
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1959
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c. 1962 |
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(Photo taken by our
fraternity
brother, the late
Joel Pravda) |
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Above
and below, the many faces of Donny Fine
(the earlier ones with the wavy
hair): |
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c.
1975 |
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c.
1979,
with top Chase officers, David
Rockefeller,
Chairman (center) and Willard Butcher, CEO
(right) |
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1964 |
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1966 |
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c.1970 |
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A
Sammy formal, Univ. of Michigan, c. 1964
With another famous Donald, c. 1985
A University of Michigan class reunion, c. 1989 |
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And at some of our
wonderful OHS Class of 1960 reunions: |
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In 1980 (with Doreen Silverstein
In 2000 (with Audrey Schneiderman, me,
and
Paul Fishman)
Sue Schlesinger and Carole
Cohen) |
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In 2000 (with
Linda Feuerstein, Jay Katz
and Sabin Danziger) |
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In 2000 (with
Ginny Matthews and Penny White) |
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In 2000, with Bob Rubin
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In high school, Donny was a wrestler, and
he often struggled
─ as wrestlers do
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to
"make weight." Eventually, in his later years, Don's love of good
food and the good life caused him to totally abandon that battle
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and
he put on the pounds. Some more recent
photos, as we last knew him, follow: |
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These two recent
photos of Donny with his dear friend and our popular OHS
classmate,
Jack Beaulieu, were
submitted by Jack's wife, Nancy Koller Beaulieu, also
a popular classmate of ours. Below, the two men are about to
enjoy Donny's season tickets at a University of Michigan
football game together. At right, they are in Nancy and
Jack's home in Rockville Centre, New York.
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Sadly, we buried our dear friend, Donny Fine, on May 23, 2010.
I had the bittersweet
privilege of speaking about him before the people
who were gathered at his graveside that day. Present also among other dear
friends, were Sailor classmates, Jack and Nancy Koller Beaulieu
and Bob Rubin.
Our friend, Donny, was loved; he will be
remembered ─
and he will be missed.
Below are some written expressions of love, remembrance and
shock from a few of
our classmates (including some of Donny's closest friends among
us) received upon learning of his untimely passing. |
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He
was looking forward to the reunion. What a loss of a truly
special person!
Don was a good friend both
before and after Jack's accident. Our youngest daughter
attended Michigan, and Don took us all under his wing.
Later, he and Jack attended some football games and had
talked of going again this fall. They discovered they both
loved electric trains and shared information and visits to Trainland. Among our many visits, he had spent a
Thanksgiving, Christmas and a wedding with us. We have many
good memories.
Isn't it too bad that so often we
often don't fully appreciate someone until we have lost
him? Don's private ways, his lack of conceit, and his
unknown generosity to so many all made him extra special.─ Jack and Nancy (Koller) Beaulieu |
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This is awful! A shock. Donny was here [in Ann
Arbor, Michigan] for football in the fall, and we
really enjoyed our dinner and evening with him. He was not
well, but we thought we'd have lots more dinners! We are
really shocked and saddened.
─ Jim
Heitler |
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I
am shocked.
─ Paul
Fishman |
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Such awful
news.
─ Linda
Feuerstein
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Don and Karen Fazio got
together several times in New York with my wife and me
over the past six years. Once, he convinced me to go to a
Michigan football game with him. We went to three of
them, and he was already planning another visit to Ann
Arbor next year. He had so many friends out there and
clearly reveled in his association with Michigan
football. He was extremely generous and became a good
friend. He had just called me about six weeks before our
reunion to tell me that he would pick me up that
Saturday night. and the three of us would trek out to
Long Island. Unfortunately, we all know what happened. I
will certainly miss him.
─ Terry
Brennan |
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What a life he lived!!!! I feel
proud to have been one of his 1960 classmates, as I do with
every other graduate
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ours was a special class
─ and
as I see, Donny was a star. It's so sad to see the "Memorial Page"
getting larger every year. It hurts my heart. ─ Nancy
Keegan |
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Donny took me to a Michigan
football game. His passion for Michigan is matched only by
Howie's passion for Oceanside. Everyone knew and respected
him. He also had a passion to help people. At his funeral,
many stories were shared about his caring and concern for
others. He was truly a good person and friend, and the world
is a better place because he lived to make things right. ─
Bob Rubin |
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Donny will be sorely missed. He
called me, and we had dinner together, after we lost my
brother, Michael, and he could not have been more
supportive, generous or loving. He recalled our high
school days together, our long friendship and how much
fun we always had in each other's company. Donny was so
bright, funny and always willing to share his knowledge
and his experiences. He was fun to listen to and a good
listener as well. He was a wonderful storyteller, and we
laughed and laughed together that night in Greenwich
Village at his favorite eatery (where everyone knows his
name).
He loved his trips to Michigan and football. He
had a hearty appetite for life. And he was a star in his
chosen profession. I never tired of seeing his name in
print
─
daily in the Business Section of the New York Times
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reading his economic predictions and prognostications
and debating (on the phone) his findings if they were
controversial, or if I needed expert advice. Donny was
so grounded and never forgot his humanity. He was so
looking forward to our 50th
Reunion. We all missed him.
He wasn't with us then but will always be in our hearts.
─ Jay Katz
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I
read the memorial you posted on Donny. It made me cry. ─
Clark
Marcus
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The
following is taken from correspondence received
in early January 2011 from Richard Canty, one of
Don's professional colleagues and friends at
Chase, who just learned of his passing:
I have been trying to track down Don for
several months and was concerned something
wasn't right because his steady stream of
e-mail jokes had abruptly stopped last
spring,
and he replied to none of mine. A Google
search just gave me the very sad explanation
as to why we haven't heard from him. Don
worked for me at Chase back in the late ‘80s
and early ‘90s. We become good friends,
which was an easy thing for Don to become
with anyone.
Don Fine was a guy we knew and loved both as
a person, and in my case, as a
highly-respected, professional colleague as
well, particularly when one considers the
time period in which Don performed at the
peak of his gifted craft.
Back then, there was no internet, and
there were no smart phones, no I-pads, no
24-hour news networks like CNBC with Kudlow,
Cramer, Bartiromo, et al. The only
people who had real-time, political,
economic, climactic, and
financial information were market
professionals who subscribed to proprietary
services such as Telerate, Reuters, and
later, Bloomberg. The rest of us "mortals"
had a morning ritual before, or en route to,
work. We picked up a copy of the Wall
Street Journal and immediately started
reading two things: "What's News" and "Heard
on the Street." The latter gave us insights
into what had happened in the professional
financial markets the prior day, how they
were impacted by world events -- in the
broadest sense -- and what they might imply
for the direction of the various markets.
The Wall Street Journal's "go-to man"
to decode the prior day's complexity for its
readers was Donny. If, as a reporter, Walter
Cronkite was "The Most Trusted Man in
America," then Don Fine was "The Most
Trusted Man on Wall Street."
Just think about
it, every morning, the CEOs and CFOs of our
major corporations and financial
institutions, our legislative leaders, our
labor leaders, our academic leaders, our
Treasury Secretary, our Federal Reserve
Chairman, our President, etc.,
checked in with Don Fine. Also, just think
how lucky I was. For a period, I got to
check in with Don Fine, face-to-face, every
day. I am smiling right now just thinking
about some of those occasions.
It appears from your tribute to Don, that
you have lost a very important person in
your life. I am sorry.
God bless our boy!
The following was
derived from a message received in January 2016
from Bruce Lowitt, a former Associated Press
sports writer and a childhood friend of Donny's
who had lost touch around 20 years ago and just
learned of his passing:
I was trying to find a guy with whom I went to
summer camp in the 1950s, and ... I discovered
that Donny Fine had died, which shook me. ...
I sought out his obituary, which sent me along
to your remarkable remembrance. I just wanted to
thank you for bringing back some memories
¾ and giving me a
good cry at his absence. |
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Come back to this special memorial page now and then
when you are thinking of Donny or
 to see if anything
has been added. And
if you would like to add anything about Don, please write me.
To visit the extensive and loving memorial site
made by Donny's cousin, Greg,
click here .
Classmates
and other visitors are invited to submit material for a special
memorial page like this for any other departed classmate. Just
e-mail it to me.
Howie
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