Humor Us
As a Harvard undergraduate and an editor of the Harvard Lampoon, Robert Hoffman (MBA ’72) “helped spin the popular campus humor magazine into an irreverent national institution that skewered American culture and later spawned movies like Animal House,” the New York Times (August 22, 2006) reported when Hoffman passed away last August. His National Lampoon cofounder, Henry Beard, told the Dallas Morning News (August 22, 2006) that Hoffman was “extremely smart and utterly fearless. National Lampoon never would have happened, and none of the things that came out of it would have happened, without Robert.”
Hoffman, who went on to become cochairman of the Coca-Cola Bottling Group (Southwest), sold his shares in the magazine in 1975. He was a well-known art collector, arts patron, and philanthropist who last year donated some 224 items worth $150 million to the Dallas Museum of Art. Hoffman was fond of saying that art is “the only effective method to travel and connect across time and space.”
Man with a Mission
Chris Howard (MBA ’03), once securely on the fast track at GE, today is associate vice president at the University of Oklahoma, thanks to the persuasive powers of OU president David Boren. According to the Oklahoman (September 5, 2006), Boren was so impressed with Howard after a chance meeting that he hired him to head OU’s leadership programs and to work with its International Programs Center and other campus initiatives as an inspirational role model for students.
And who wouldn’t he inspire? A helicopter pilot and now a major in the Air Force Reserve, Howard was class president at the Air Force Academy, a running back on the team that defeated Ohio State in the 199o Liberty Bowl, and an Academic All-American. A Rhodes scholar, he earned a doctorate in politics at Oxford. Then he and his wife, Barbara, founded an organization to help young apartheid victims in her native South Africa, before he returned for a time to the military as an intelligence officer hunting war criminals in Bosnia and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Howard said he’s been given a lot and wants to make a difference. “My great-great-grandfather was a slave, and I’m a Rhodes scholar, so that’s not lost on me. I take that to heart.”
Taking the Long View
At 105, Al Gordon (MBA ’25) remains an active investor in a career that began before the Crash of 1929. According to a Bloomberg News article (Seattle Times, September 10, 2006), Gordon, the former chairman of Kidder, Peabody, is currently bearish on U.S. stocks, in part because of the country’s huge national debt. He prefers shares of companies such as Canada’s EnCana, Wal-Mart de Mexico, and Petróleo Brasileiro. “At least three-quarters of whatever I own is foreign stocks,” Gordon revealed.
Former Goldman Sachs cochairman John Whitehead (MBA 11/’47), recalling Gordon’s 65 years on Wall Street , said, “Work hard and never give up, those were very valuable lessons I learned from trying to compete with Al.” Another Gordon lesson is the key to longevity. Known for long city walks and for climbing the stairs in skyscrapers, Gordon took up marathoning at age 81 and attributes his long life to exercise and at least nine hours of sleep a night.
Soul Man
In addition to battling the usual array of human failings, evangelical Christian leaders are now coping with a new problem: Teenagers en masse are turning their backs on the faith. “I’m looking at the data,” Ron Luce (OPM 29, 2000) told the New York Times (October 6, 2006), “and we’ve become post–Christian America, like post–Christian Europe.” Added Luce, founder of Teen Mania, a 20-year-old youth ministry, “We’ve been working as hard as we know how to work — everyone in youth ministry is working hard — but we’re losing.”
Over the last fifteen years, however, Teen Mania events featuring music and evangelical exercises have attracted some 2 million young people, “more than Paul McCartney has pulled in,” Luce said. At one such recent gathering, Luce exhorted his audience to write down on pieces of paper all the negative societal and materialistic influences — “cultural garbage” — they wished to be rid of. As the teens deposited their notes in trash bins (along with CDs, T-shirts, and cigarette lighters), Luce prayed before the crowd into an onstage microphone, “Lord Jesus, I strip off the identity of the world, and this morning I clothe myself with Christ, with his lifestyle. That’s what I want to be known for.”
Rolling Thunder
HEAVY METAL: Stephen Julius and family aboard an Indian motorcycle, a classic brand that in late 2007 will once again hit the streets.
PHOTO COURTESY STEPHEN JULIUS
Vrrooom…that’s the sound of the classic Indian brand motorcycle, revving up for a comeback. Founded in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1901 — two years before Harley-Davidson — Indian held nearly half of U.S. market share for the next fifty years before falling on hard times and filing for bankruptcy. The brand retains a cultlike following of enthusiasts even after a second attempt to restart the company again resulted in bankruptcy, in 2003.
Behind the Indian kick-start are Stephen Heese (MBA ’88) and Stephen Julius (MBA ’88), who purchased Indian in 2004. Julius told the Financial Times (September 18, 2006) that he has spent two years drawing up a business plan to avoid “past mistakes.” The two men are partners in London-based Stellican Ltd., a private-equity firm that specializes in the revival of heritage brands, mainly in the recreational-products area. Stellican has restored elegance and prestige to Chris-Craft boats (purchased in 2000) and intends to do the same with the Indian in the premium motorcycle market. Plans are set for Indian Chief heavyweight cruiser motorcycles to roll out of a plant in North Carolina by the end of next year. Thousands of Indian aficionados can hardly wait.
Adventure in Reading
Jeff Norton (MBA ’03) credits the old Choose Your Own Adventure book series, where young readers could pick different plot directions, with making a difference in his life. “I was a reluctant reader as a boy,” Norton told Toronto’s Globe and Mail (September 23, 2006). “The books were my catalyst into reading and exploring.”
So perhaps it’s not surprising that, along with partner and co-CEO Michelle Crames (MBA ’03), Norton founded an LA-based company called Lean Forward Media, licensed the rights to the Choose series, and is now turning the books into interactive DVDs. The first is The Abominable Snowman, which features the voices of actors William H. Macy and Felicity Huffman.
Norton believes the DVDs will actually encourage kids to read, just as children read Harry Potter books after seeing one of the movies. Even adults can enjoy the DVDs. “For parents, it’s a guilty pleasure, too,” Norton said. “It’s a trip down memory lane.”
