During my early morning, coffee-driven recreational web browsing, I came across an obituary about a New York City man I knew nothing about, Roy Neuberger, who passed away (12/24/2010) at the incredible age of 107. There’s a wonderful photo accompanying the article, showing Mr. Neuberger, looking stunningly healthy to my eyes, receiving a Medal of Arts from President Bush in 2007 (at the age of 104). Wow!
What, I asked, drove a man to live that long?
Art and the love of business. A successful wedding of Happiness and Purpose.
I found this to be a fascinating life, a story of a man who founded a NY brokerage firm (Neuberger Berman) and experienced 3 market crashes (’29, ’87,’ 2008). And he was also a patron of the arts, who collected (but rarely sold) artworks of living American artists.
It’s worth your time; read the obituary here at the New York Times.