Leo Fields
Leo Fields was born on September 14, 1928, at the start of the Depression. His father, whose surname he recalled as Schmidt, was born in Austria, served in the Navy, and worked for a retailer; he died when Leo was only eight weeks old, likely during a pandemic. His mother, Mamie, born in Boston to a large family, took work in Amarillo with a brother-in-law and left Leo in the care of his grandmother Sara in Wichita Falls. He was largely raised by his aunt and uncle, whom he called MB and Edna, who treated him as their own son after losing their firstborn, Hershel. Another aunt, Goldy, also helped raise him. He grew up in a small Jewish community, attended religious school, and was confirmed by a visiting Dallas rabbi.
Leo began working in the family jewelry stores around age ten, apprenticing during summers, including with his uncle Ben in Amarillo. After graduating high school at sixteen and a half, he spent months in New York, then attended the University of Texas for two years before choosing the business over college. He traveled to Europe with his cousin Marvin, living in Antwerp and learning to cut and sort diamonds, and studying watchmaking in Switzerland. Drafted in 1951, he served two years in the Korean War, including a defining experience in a medical detachment. Returning home, he met and married Bobby, and worked in cities including Salt Lake City, Seattle, and New Orleans before settling in Dallas around 1957, where he helped grow Zale Corporation as a merchandiser, founder of the Fine Jewelers Guild division, and eventually group vice president and vice chairman.
Leo and Bobby raised three children, Amy, Charles (Cheryl, the interviewer), and David, and took deep pride in their many grandchildren. Guided by MB and Edna's example, Leo devoted himself to philanthropy through the Zale Foundation and the Sale Fields Fund. He helped build a hospital in India, supported Children's Medical Center in Dallas, endowed a pediatrics lectureship, and chaired the Dallas Home for Jewish Aged Foundation, guiding the move to a new facility in Plano. Through work with Brandeis and Harvard's Kennedy School, he helped develop a plan for the West Bank and met with Yasser Arafat in Tunisia shortly before the signing of the Declaration of Principles. After leaving the jewelry business in the late 1980s, he built a successful investment advisory firm. He credited his family as role models and lived by a personal philosophy of choosing life and doing good.
Full Transcript
Wow okay I'm Cheryl field spoken today is January 19 2009 and I have the greatest honor to interview my father Cleo fields for Dallas Jewish Historical Society and our family records let's start at the very beginning let's start with your parents could you please tell us the names of your parents and a little bit about their background my father was William Fowler could you spell that schm IDT and he was probably born din in Austria does that recall I never knew him because he died when I was 8 weeks old and I was raised by my mother my mother was Mamie lip she Baumann and
this was 1928 September 14th 1928 it was the beginning of the depression and so being a very poor family she found a job in Amarillo with her brother-in-law and put me in the care of my grandmother so I really never knew my mother until maybe I was 12 years old I'd see her occasionally but I never really got to know her until she moved from him or other to Wichita Falls so she put you in the care of your grandmother in Wichita Falls and your grandmother's name was Sara lip she hmm so she put you in the care of your grandmother and Wichita Falls and
she was living in Amarillo what did you how did your father died Cheryl I think he died one of the pandemics they were spreading around the world I had no idea but the doctors told me selling they would have saved his life but he was in the hospital for quite a while they told me in fact they said at one time we were in the hospital together which I don't recall just repeating it to you you you were in the hospital together you were a sick child and I what did your father do my father worked for a retailer and of course I know nothing
about his background other than that I do know that he served in the Navy ok and and your mother was born where Boston Massachusetts in Boston how do suburbs how did she happen to be born in Boston I think that's probably where the ship landed ok and she was one of how many children I think it's seven okay okay and so you were raised in Wichita Falls until until I was 16 and a half and at that time I graduated from high school he only had 11 years in those days and you have to go back and know about my relationship with him being Edna
because that's very important well anyway at age 16 behalf the MB sent me to New York to go to work there I graduated and I spent about six or seven months in New York after high school after high school because at that time it's 1945 the war had ended and the University of Texas was on a different kind of a semester they had three you know dad I think you're skipping ahead just a little bit I want to hear this but can we go back I'd like to you're but more about your childhood sure let's go back and to what it was like growing up
in Wichita Falls what was the community life in Wichita Falls well I don't think it was too favorable for Jews frankly and you have to go back into my relationship I lived with my buddy off and on with Indian Epton the Martian had lost a child about my age when he was 3 years old Hershel that was their oldest child first son called his child and for all practical purposes it adopted me as their own son and Edna and your mother mainly her sister sisters correct and so they adopted you as their own child for practical purposes from the very beginning or when would you
say oh sure I just don't remember you know but you said you left with your bubby yes until you were 12 so we know but I spent time with him bein Edna okay and they had me go to the same school as Marvin went you know I should have gone to another school and they use their address from my address and so forth and I must tell you also about mangodi Persky because she was instrumental in raising me too I must tell you that in a godly Persky was another sister right yes she was the oldest high school I always kidded I was asked to
speak once in Wichita Falls and I told them at the time and I have of the annual which I'd like to show you too my senior year and I kidded everybody I was one of the top five male graduates of the school and they devoted maybe a three to five picture of us and about 15 pages of the football team and I told him if they ever reversed that that I knew that they were kind of surprised how many were in your graduating class of high school do you recall maybe 400 or so she okay and what was the what were you involved in when
you were a child what kind of activities did you enjoy I'm Cheryl I was not a good athlete I'll tell you that and in high school I enjoyed being on the newspaper it was one of the editors of the newspaper which was very good and I enjoyed mathematics and all the other things sometimes we get involved in softball but we didn't have too many activities as I recall did you uh did you work when you were not in school that's a good question because I started working maybe at the age of 10 or 11 and that was a store number one Wichita Falls and every
Sunday and he would take us in his convertible and go down God Avenue no me that's the name of the street and make sure that our store was still on the court her and then he takes us get ice cream but that was some Marvin and it wouldn't be Dottie yet just Marvin and I because Tony was too young okay Marvin was Mb son he was a year younger than you were Rick ain't go down every Saturday and work in the store and we did menial things like taking jewelry over to the shop you know wrapping packages things of that type and we did that
until I was about nineteen forty three we used to be apprenticed out to someone else and I was apprenticed to Ben lip she and you just who lived in Amarillo I remember because it was the war years and we had a victory garden so you were apprenticed at that mean in the summer in the summer yes they would be sent sent out right and that was 43:44 trying to think what I did in 44 so for in 1943 you were how old approximately 28 about 13 or 14 years old so you were sent to with your uncle and I think the following year from Palma
state it was nineteen forty years forward I spent the summer with Alan Sadie Kirkman and Al was a great teacher and I lived with him in San Antonio in 1945 I was sent back to New York and I really had wanted to go to the University of Pennsylvania but the war had ended and a kid everybody they asked me about the Peloponnesian War and I said we didn't fight the Peloponnesian War in which cell phones but I did get accepted to a university of california-berkeley but it had no idea where it was at that time I had no money at all you know so with
the University of Texas for two years so you went to the University of Texas but when you stopped living with your Bobby at age 12 did you then move in with mother had moved from Wichita Falls and had remarried who did she marry Sam great and they had one of those little houses with asbestos siding on it that they built right after and during the war you know a very modest house and I walked to school so did you live in with them from until you graduated high school yes yes different maybe three or four years at the most and then I went to New
York but you and they had a son together yes sure we agree he's 10 years younger than I am mm-hmm so he's lived with them and then you graduated high school you were except you moved to New York and worked in New York for how long you went to college well sure a college class that didn't begin until October or November so I spent you know June July August September October four or five months in New York with it was there a jewelry company in New York at that time we know this was our always they'll be an opening office and there was a wonderful
education for me and I was a courier I would take the jewelry to the manufacturers and so forth and so I got to know you are quite well and when I first moved there in the first week or two I lived at the YMCA and then I moved to the Y MHA on 92nd and Lexington it's still there still there unfortunately I had marsley brother there rocky we called him abseil whenever I needed a good meal on the weekend he'd take care of me but one of the best things that happened to be sure is that I was walking down I want to say it
was Park Avenue with the MB and I had taken him to a book story and he suggested that I give him a suggestion about a book and so I said I read in the New York Times there was a book called dirty Eddie I thought I mean every development as I recall long time ago and when you bought the book they gave you a little aluminum horseshoe with a penny inside and then he gave it to me and I had that with me and one day I had four cents in my pocket I couldn't get to the office I think a bus was a dime
and a subway was a nickel so I'm locked that penny out and I've always tried to teach that to my children to be so poorest that was just a great service to me and my family as we grew older and then the University of Texas opened in October and I went to Texas for two years but after the first year interesting story I was sent to Omaha to work for less cornfield and that was a good education - so was that less corn film was that one of the sale stores when the managers okay and when I got back to the University of Texas I
joined the fraternity and I had the carne de Jujuy pie and I had a mustache and they wrestled me to the ground and cut off my mustache that shows you how square they were in 1946 what happened today wouldn't happen today so they felt that you were a little radical when you came back from my stash what did you study Texas you take general courses the first two years there and then I left because I was really more interested in starting Zell corporation than I was to going to college so you were interested in starting sale corporation up till this point how many stores would
you say there were it was there were 13 stores 13 stores and where were the stores located in what cities most number Texas in Oklahoma Wichita Falls Telsa Austin Springfield Dallas and how did when he had mainly Texas stores he was always far looking he should look in the future and Marvin and I used to talk about philosophy for sale in reach say we want to give the customer the best quality jewelry at the lowest possible price and that's what we did we had terrific quality jewelry sold it on credit which can be originated and from that base Marvin and I my first one after
I was in New York for about two years and I wasn't interested in going back to school although I did enroll at the Columbia University School of general studies on two occasions did you attend sometimes but I was more interested in the business you know so he sent us to Europe so this was about 1947-48 and we lived in Europe for about 15 months we lived in Antwerp this was you and Marvin Marvin and I right but to do that you had to be enrolled in a school you couldn't stay beyond three months so we enrolled in the a program is called V which is
part of the university of brussels the interesting thing was that our professor was from Russia speaking French and we couldn't even understand what he said it's courses in furniture somewhat and then after spending a year or so there and we did everything we learned to cut diamonds assort diamonds for many jewelers around he'd be sent us to Paris you learn to cut diamonds sure and perish for about six weeks learned about fancy cut diamonds from there he sent us to Switzerland and did MB know these things himself or he counted on you to know these things so then Marvin and I were sent to a
little town called southern in Switzerland sort of third it was Neil began to be in and we worked in a factory that made watches completely except for the hair springs they made every part of a watch maybe the hair Springs and the jewels and so we really do it and then we would take time to go through the Amiga plan the Rolex plan and then Marvin and I decided to buy bicycles so we did things I would never let my children do today we bicycle from Mugato in Switzerland to mulatto oh it's the first I've heard of this yeah very interesting you know you have
a chance with us before so you did we buy something and real adventures right of course when my granddaughter does this today I say how could you do but very interesting because we went from mulatto to get Enzo to Florence we went to Venice and we went to really travelled we traveled a lot and then we bicycle back to the border of Switzerland I'm sorry Switzerland and in France how did you happen to how did you travel from the United States overseas well it was the Queen Mary so and so we invited everybody to come good question trying to come to our suite which is
five floors below the deck and four bucks to a room and 32 people so that was our going hot party so this was the days before air travel over so leaders I think that's interesting to note let's let's go back I feel like there's still more that we want to cover before we get too too far into your adult years or dad growing up in Wichita Falls did your family belong to a synagogue that's a very good question she and we had a Orthodox of congregation we didn't have a rabbi we had a you know someone who kills a kosher butcher butcher with a long
beard and I'd have to say your sight for my father I'd have to get up on the demon and he'd bend over me and say leo repeat after me you scut all of it he's a good - you may have a book good standing girl garlic couldn't stand and so I just wanted to get away from that as far as I could and then we had a Reform congregation we didn't have a rabbi we had someone who had dropped out of the school Hebrew University Hebrew poster we had a rabbi for maybe six months or so and MB did not believe in us having a
good Jewish education or keeping kosher and why would you say that well he used to explain to me in technical terms that you kept kosher because in home invasion you seed everything off of a wooden plate and he says today who have ceramic plates so it's no longer necessary so he was a pretty good agnostics so how many Jewish families would you say there were and do you have any recollection and Wichita Falls I have no idea sure but it's interesting I grew up text I was there a reader opened offer was there who had Jacobus cokes yes but she was ill and we probably
had in our graduating class 18 kids totally yeah and a temple okay and the rabbi from Dallas lefke which would come in and confirm us by the way it was very nice of him that's where he interested here did your family celebrate the Jewish holidays that's another good question that you asked me because we go into Fort Worth where Marcia's father was there Sam sale and he was just a house painter and he would give the services you know and he'd started six o'clock in the evening and he'd get up it get through you know about 10:00 or 11:00 at night he saw it all
the time and we kids would just race holy hell so who was he would he be doing this at home or was he doing this very modest very modest house in DeBary so he'd be leading the service at home an interesting question because his wife would greet us at the door with the yoke of AIDS that they would boil you know totally yes cholesterol you didn't know about that in those days and she would give us all that greasy food and all the cholesterol well I imagine that there was a reason for that that those were the kinds of foods and sustain people back back
in that time did your mother or Morris and Edna belong to Jewish organizations in Wichita Falls of those time sure we did have those things we had the temple synagogue so but you did go to religious school because you were confirmed with Rabbi Lefkowitz well yes yes but it wasn't organized like today maybe we went on Sunday morning and that's all the Jewish education that we had mm-hmm but even though you're saying that MP was probably couldn't have been agnostic it was still stressed to you the value of being Jewish no question about it he just didn't believe in some of the things that went
along with it we had a vicar there for example mm-hmm he was pretty far-reaching thinker when it came to that I thank you for sharing this with me so when we're going to go back to you and Marvin we're in Europe you were alert you were traveling experiencing line learning the nuts and bolts of the jewelry business and how long did you stay in Europe we were there about 15 months Sheryl in the you came back remember the year I came back in 1950 and shortly thereafter I was drafted and they permitted me to stay working in the store through Christmas and then in January
1951 I was drafted into the army and how long did you spend doing basic training I think we must have spent six weeks or two months in Fort Sill and I'm sorry let me go back we were trained at Fort Smith Camp Chaffee Fort Smith is that Arkans where is the Arkansas Arkansas and they asked me which branch of the service I wanted to be any of I said I want to volunteer for the infantry sugar and so I was I did quite well on my exams for the army they want to send me to officers training school if I would enlist for three years
I said no way I'm going back to Wichita Falls into the business so they sent me to Fort Sill where I became an artillery surveyor you serve it in the gun position and you had to learn to use the Gertie transit to know where you are and you called in the firepower so you basically became a forward observer whose lifespan is about two weeks maybe and when I got to Korea they wanted me to stay in Japan for do administrative work I said no I want to get into combat remember I wasn't married and so so you were you sent to Japan general yeah the
crib shipped away to Japan so you did you had another ocean crossing on a funny ship about 12 or 14 days on new ships mm-hmm and then when I got to Japan they said okay we're sending you to Korea so when I got to Korea and I forgot the name it could have been young dong PO or someplace like that it was where all the draftees as to all the people were listing in the army came and they said can you type I said yes and they said we're sending you to the medical detachment we're putting you in charge of the medical detachment of the
1st Cavalry Division putting you in charge of it yes because the bastard sergeant who was there was a regular army officer and I shouldn't say noncommissioned officers a Master Sergeant he wanted to get back home he was tired of all the fighting so he left me in charge and I didn't know a damn thing where did your duties entail I didn't know you just said when I got there first afternoon I was strafed kept in a foxhole yeah that's it I'm not gonna do this any longer I'm gonna sleep at the back of the ambulance if I get straight so after I was there about
three days we had all only doctors and dentists with us so what a dentist came up to me I want to say his name was already against burgers slips by mine and he said Leo a British Army officer has been shot down in North Korea let's fly over and pick him up you must remember we were United Nation forces so we had a Marine pilot and two Navy medics and we were army medics so you all work together during that time you get or somebody would be would strap them onto the helicopter and send them back just like in mash okay I'll put my football
they strut to get in the helicopter I took put a cup of grenades in my pocket and maybe I took a carbon with me and I strapped on a kid I wouldn't have the slightest idea how to do anything would give him morphine and they said get off the Navy medics that showed up and fifty minutes later I saw the helicopter gets shot down I said I said maybe God has something else for me so that was really a very defining moment and it taught me a lot was there a Jew a Jewish component to serving for your military service did you participate in any
kind of that's a pretty good question Cheryl and I think I have a picture with me I think I showed you the picture we had a rabbi that came to us one time I don't think I was in that picture but I got to go back to Seoul twice Russia sure and Yom Kippur which probably saved my life because the army started a big babel Kippur in Russia each other and we were went to the German Embassy and so it was one story high there were no high-rise buildings and we had services and I got to drive the officer back to the base you know
and we were 30 or 40 miles from the from our troops very good question how long did you serve in the surface two years and I came back on January 1st 2003 [Music] the United States after having been away like that could you see a lot of changes well sure I remember one thing never remember landing uh getting off the ship ship January 1st the Red Cross was the only person to meet us where did you land we landed in San Francisco and then I went home right away and the went to New York because Marvin was getting married I was home about a week
and then I traveled to New York but home at this point in being Edna had moved to Dallas and after you graduated high school so they were living in Dallas the business was based in Dallas as well as New York and while you were gone the business from the 13 or centers - when did you come home to find there were about 40 so much doors it's an interesting good our interviewer shell when I got back the first thing I did is a month or so after I was there I met the month after you came back maybe too much wasn't about me it was
love at first sight and so Bobby asked me to marry her which I agreed in San Antonio we had been there to be Marcin and the gifts why don't we take a little break and then I want to hear that story start at the beginning the service you were I'm sure at that point being introduced to lots of young women and how did you happen to meet Bobby well interesting question you hear great interview I decided I was going to make a list and go ABC and I remember work out and be with Bobby so I couldn't go any further than that and so we
got married and I had been working at Corrigan's in Houston for a few months and in b-bow camp actually we were buying a store in Salt Lake City and Bobby was pregnant by the way after the first week we got married and Debbie said we're sending you to Salt Lake City take over store so Margaret I was out there were you surprised that you would be transferred so soon from Houston did you feel that you would have spent time and used it or did you realize that this was the part well had worked there before I had you at work in Salt Lake City but
I've enjoyed working used I'm trying to remember when I went there I worked at Corden's anyone Corrigan's was one of your fine jewelry stores so mark and I had moved out there we bought those stores that was tour number 44 by the way and I must tell you one thing MB and I had the most fantastic relationship because when I got back he sent me to California when you got back from from Korea he sent me to California to buy a store called granted brothers and I remember we met in Trader Vic's in Oakland California and the store was a lovely store the problem is
they had a strike and the store had a book value of a million five had offered him to be in one and he's got three indignant and he got on the phone he called Indy said you know what this little whippersnapper did he offered me and they had one for store worth of million five I didn't ask him and he said ask him be prepared you just he said if he made that offer it's without an offer and Joe granted you own the store his teeth dropped because here I want us but 20-some odd years of making him an offer for over a million dollars
that's what was a tremendous he turned it down but he had a strike and I went back there maybe five years later and the net worth had gone down to three hundred thousand dollars and I said Emmy we've never done this before and I haven't asked we're going to give you sales shares and that was the first time we gave the old shares and those shares appreciate it so he had so you gave sales shares to buy this instead of cash and at this point they appreciated in price and he was able to give it each one of his children three of them $600,000 seats
that's that's what his goal was and that was very interesting that relationship that we had that I had with envy because they hadn't trusted you great great confidence in me he saw your potential as though as a young boy but I was hard to handle my first child you were born there and I would call that because the ink wasn't driving the ticket I had to get on a plane to go to New York I think that afternoon for a meeting that right Bobby of course I was dedicated to what I was doing and then I got another call to move to Seattle so how
long were you did you live in Salt Lake City one year I tell everybody I got my PhD in Seattle the cost number one mother miscarried number one number two the teams are trying to organize me which they couldn't do number three I was being sued over a fair trade loss which I wouldn't obey because they didn't enforce them and I tell everybody I got my PhD learning all those things in the meantime the population the working population in Seattle dropped from 150,000 maybe to 30,000 one of those deals with Boeing or either you had a job or you didn't so it was good trading
for me and then after that he brought me into the Telus office I'm sorry what did you all hear it's because you're forgetting you know forgot that importance of you live in Seattle for about how about a year about a year and it was just one store there one store and then you and then you got such a new world you got New Orleans got the telephone call again from bokya and what was my dance job in the company well he was more like a senior advisor than anything cricket man was he a relative uh no no just a close friend of Emmys and of
course the families so you were sent to to New Orleans and I took over store that was established about 1814 as I recall Haussmann's and gave Houseman I became dear friends and that was a very interesting experience to take over store and had him work for me as the manager and so forth I spent a year there and then I got called into the Dallas office you had a daughter oh okay he was born there barely got it to the hospital in time and they had shot skip ahead a little bit you want to hear more about New Orleans yeah we had a wonderful time
they had a cousin barber Faye Cohen from Fort Worth who lived there and married into a lovely family and we became very very dear friends and her husband Walter jr. and I became the dearest difference in fact I was invited to be one of the pallbearers at his funeral and he became a justice of the Supreme Court of the state and Barbara and I and Bobby always stay in touch like when you were living when you were traveling like this going from city to city if you won't cut down roots in the Jewish communities where you lived we tried we want me there for a year mm-hmm so and you were in New Orleans for about a year to come to Dallas now when you would leave these cities other managers were brought in to take
what you had started I had traded when I was there okay so you would train people and get the stores up and running the way that you would want and then you were then did you know that Dallas would would be your ultimate goal well I hadn't really wanted to go to New York to work and run the New York office but Indy wouldn't let me go there because of course he wanted me with him I said and I wanted to get into the merchandising which I knew very well so this is the first time that you had real actually lived in Dallas when you
moved to Dallas no I live here one summer and I lived in Martha net his home on southwestern and there's a story there but I won't get into it ok ok well we're certainly curious so you moved to Dallas then and about 1954 maybe ok no when I was born in 1954 so it had been about 1957 or 56 then in 1957 you moved down and you went to work in the the not in a store at this point the whole office right in the home office since we're talking about your career tell me continue on about you with your career with would say well
I did but I like very much I did the merchandising Design and Merchandising which I thought was very important and then we've got the idea one day to start to find jeweler's guild we had the basis in Corrigan's and in Hausman and some of the other stores I thought Zell Brothers for example in Portland Oregon so I created a division called the plan jeweler's guild and I had two things happen in these Wells Callie Shaw who was one of my managers he had been a watchmaker in the store and had him as my assistant and then a wonderful woman now shannon who had picked up
in fact I talked to her the other day she's 91 91 years old fabulous fabulous tall catholic girl country anybody over the table and it's another story there and i'll tell you about that and the three of us started this division which grew when i left the company at that time it was for two million dollar divisions and you know that worked for me and she was terrific so you started a division then were you going around the country buying other fine jewelry stores more than if I just bought any store I did most of the negotiating for stores and just trying to think then
I went into management and I became was called a group vice president over all the jewelry stores and it was very challenging task how many stores were there at the time I'm sure it could have been eight hundred five hundred stores I just don't remember mm-hmm and then I did acquisitions for them and then eventually retired when the company was sold which we kid into I became board member and eventually vice chairman of the board that's a separate story right there so I've heard so when this company was sold do you recall how many stores there were well at that time sure I think we
had about 2000 stores because we had bought a shoe company and we owned discover drug stores at one time department stores and it wasn't just in the United States we were all over the world what was it like we used with envy do you recall some of the conversation conversations that you must have had about starting with a very small jewelry business with a jewelry counter to a jewelry storage to what what you all create it well I get back to the story that he told then lips in which snow falls he wouldn't let anybody wait on a diamond customer and finally he let been
lip she we don't a diamond customer and Ben said what shall I tell them I always remember this Cindy said tell them the truth and that's what we tried to do tell our customers the truth give him the best product give him credit and it was a concept that was just tremendous that was it what were some of the other things that you becuase having well he asked me to travel with him around the world we'd go around the world once or twice a year for several years and I'd go into the stores and try to teach him when I thought was my concept of
merchandising and we had wonderful factories working for us in Hong Kong and we made beautiful things just tremendous things and a lot of originality in them and I remember going into the stores that we bought in Germany called Chris chri St Christ Christie Lou : and they said oh you never sell these things here so we'll just try running and you get hope and sure enough you know that people are the same all over they like beautifully styled goods reasonably priced and that became a very nice subsidiary virus but MP and I would go around the world and we go to Israel where we had
a plant where we cut stones and we had an office where we bought it from there we'd fly to India would go to India and we go to Sri Lanka India we had wonderful cutters an Indian and my wife won't let me tell you all the stories about what happened that's very interesting yes the people we dealt with all wanted to get back to their community and so we had a family there the one solid family they were changed very religious people and the product that they cut was just absolutely wonderful couldn't cut it any better and they had very difficult stones to work with
and so envy made a deal with them that we would tie and each month each of us gave $1,000 toward building a hospital and Dottie would go over there we built the hospital it was Donnie todd zeile I'm sorry another cousin brother and he came in he was president of the company and Zell family in the Ben Fawley family built the hospital in DISA which was right on the border of Pakistan and India and Donnie put it under the auspices of the medical school here and everybody was very proud that they could do that in the little communities that they came from it's a great
concept and a chance to do good in the world but the thing about attending is the way I would work is I would go in and I would pick out the goods that I wanted to sell in the stores and I think they rejects and put them on the side the rejections and maybe said I'll buy that it'd be he take all the things I didn't want to buy because I tried to buy the nicer good and he create a market out of it and that was the challenging things what did we do with all these things and so having three or four different kinds
of stores was a perfect outlet for the things that we did and we did that in Sri Lanka Lakota Sri Lanka because India Gover Israel we go to Thailand and we didn't know that Hong Kong I'm sure you traveled for many years you were building the business what was it like raising your family you're the best example my wife and I said at that time Bobby taught me the best thing that can do for his children his love their father and that I've done with all my heart I've been married for how many years now happily okay it's going on what Bobby 56 years and
as we're doing this interview today you just celebrated your 80th birthday in the fall surprise party yes yes you had a happy life raising your children and what was the Jewish community like as you raised your family well I tell you Cheryl we went to tempie Manuel was very interesting because my first association with it was when I came back from the service and Temple emanu-el was in South Dallas desert recall and Levi Olin was the rabbi and I found him very challenging mentally challenging you know I love you because I came back and you come back from a war zone you're not in the
best of shape and he was able to give you a lot of solace about that did you have a personal relationship with him or just from having been sitting in services that's a wonderful question sure hoping he could find out all these things he came to me one day and I would don't out the money for the Denzel foundation and he wanted $5,000 to write a book and I gave him the $5,000 and there's a frontispiece in there too which he attributed to me what my money it was a Zell family money so you there was a character for giving from the family I'll tell
you about how and then he called me he said I want to start a lectureship program I want to bring in the best of doctors he said hospital is only as good as the doctors who were there and me being a smart aleck I said those doctors were rich they could afford to pay for a lecture if they want he said Leland you don't understand if you really want to do something you have to bring in the best of doctors and so I relented and Bobby and I started this lectureship for the doctors basically a Children's Medical Center and we met wonderful people in fact
I just showed you the book from dr. Houk who wrote the book on pediatrics and I have a wonderful letter from Edna on that and we went on to meet wonderful people I can't remember all the names but that's not what's important so we have dr. Gannon check for example we've got the Nobel Prize for his work in slow-acting viruses and cannibals we had anything else we had a doctor from Stanford who did the work on DNA we had the one doctor who did the work on me think of his name vector was it Stephen who did the work on vaccines VEX yeah and these are fabulous individuals and you helped help and you were you were telling me about her relationship with Levi Olivia will work with the temple someone should I just didn't have time but I was on the board where they selected the next president but I did several
things there that very interesting but I want to get back to the Children's Hospital we lost our first son their aspiration I think he had was somebody had I can't remember it was they had an obstruction in his stomach and in those days you had to transfer the child in one of these and is that what you call it from what hospital to another 21 days yes I wish again be and I said it'd be they're trying to start a new hospital here and they need a major gift and I have a picture to show you that you can photograph I said eppie I'd like
to give him $5,000 for a room and he said leave I'll make you a challenge he said I just sold my house at 4,400 beams place that famous hole he said I'll give you the proceeds of that house if you Mark and Donnie will match it which we did and so the lead grant was that from the sale foundation and I remember I'll show you the picture of it later I think it's very important and of course it's grown to an enormous facility today and if you go in there on the first floor we built the surgical wing of the hospital was born he had
a hernia stop for just a minute we have a very important family we were very concerned about even we had this wonderful doctors say he's going to be fine but Bobby and I was touch-and-go I haven't gone through that and then you were just getting ready to say that Andrew Davidson was born yes anyhow to hurt you so we took him up there to be operated on and this doctor came out can't remember his name he started with a V don't remember me but how was the surgeon who read this surgical wing when you gave us the money for it and if you go there
now and that was so many years ago no but in that what he remembered me and then you remembered what we did and you go down there you'll see a big bronze plaque and we dedicated it to Morton Lewis as I recall pause for just a minute I think we're about out of time no okay ten more minutes okay let's get going huh so I'm sorry I want to check on the time so you were saying we did those kind of things and one thing that I think is important too you asked me about a statue that bigger gave me very interesting story Boone Powell
came to us one day and I was in the room little pal senior with Ben lippy and imbeciles and he said I have a gift for you and what's that old saying beware of it bearing gifts or something I said okay but what do you want he says I want you to build the emergency room facility and Thayer and the family agreed to do that that was about 1966 as I recall and it was a very small emergency room and one day I was with Margaret Johnson that was Eric Johnson's daughter who got a call we were at the Petroleum Club her dad had a
heart attack and she said would you drive me to the hospital I'm too nervous I said I'd be happy to I said don't worry about it he's gonna be in the Johnson wing of a hospital in the Salem hurt him facility and of course he pulled through but I've always had that long relationship with him but you even be recognized early on the value to the community so you were really raised with it by MBE and you learn these learn these things from an early age sure you have the best questions because what happened is I think we've been at robbed man coughs house and
they wanted to start these charitable programs at the Federation and I said to rot I said I'll give you $5,000 and we'll start the fields family fund so MBI told him about that he said can I join you and we'll call it the sail fields fund this is about 1982 or something like that and I have a letter to show you on that and he said I'll give you a million dollars in sales stock and I said well call it sell fields I'll take that challenge any time so that was really the beginning of the Zell foundation although there was a company foundation we had
this as L feels thing and then when the company was sold split it up and it's interesting I read the letters the other day how prescient I was about the foundation because the advice I gave them in those days is just as good today sure and what was some of the advice we had Curtis metals talk to us about getting involved in the community don't just give to Jewish causes we have tremendous problems in town which we did we would tie in with the Republic Bank in Jimmy asked them that they would match whatever we would do for the black community a wonderful opportunity for
us and we had some original programs about Salish one if you recall that we really originated that program tell us what about saying yes I think they took basically Chicano kids into high school who had children no they didn't know how to raise the children so micro Bain came up with this idea it was micro man he was the head of the self foundation in those years yes in fact it was honored by being the lead editorial in the New York Times on New Year's Day many many years ago he continues to be honored to this day yeah in San Antonio I think the foundation
the family built they are contributed to the new facility yes you would know a lot about that the proudest thing to me is what they made you the chairperson is their foundation okay so you had a foundation through the business so you were involved in charitable giving through the business and indemnity set an example that you and their children Marvin Donny with all three hippie and Edna's children well good I think I showed you show had not consider me their child I think when I made a speech once and I sent her a copy of the speech maybe I was dr. Holt's lecture come to think of it and she said that she lost a child in God's Way he gave me to her you were very blessed our family's been very blessed let's take a break okay a little break and I'd like to swing back for a few minutes because I'd like to talk more about the family I have the luxury of getting to do the interview today but I know you're proud of all three of us for all three of your children for their individual accomplishments your daughter Amy may be his junior mother here she takes care of us on a whim she'll cry if she heard that Bobby coughs she'll get on the plane the next morning and be here to take care of her Amy's done a fabulous job of her family and how many great how many children does Amy have and tell us her husband and the names of your grade of Amy's children okay he is married to talk to wade Rosenberg and where do they live in Houston and he was trained by dr.
noon and dr. DeBakey and and he is a vascular surgeon with the specialty and operating room pancreas and kidneys and doing transplants yeah he has just been elected president of the doctors and is on the board of the big Methodist Hospital that's the respect that he's held in and he's a fabulous fabulous surgeon Amy god bless her is very talented she's an artist she designs jewelry and she is a junior mother to a sorority Marcus the senior brother and the whims you'll come down here and takes care of Bobby and me and I just adored that child and of course she's got three spunky children too and tell
us their names but the oldest one is Matthew Matthew was one twenty six or seven he's got the idea that he can become another Bill Gates or something like that and he's developing a website called a doctor and he hasn't gone to get his master's degree but he's getting a master's education an MBA in developing this website I could never have taught him as much as he's learned when he's spending his own money to do that and then I have Ethan and Ethan is the quiet the border runs deep and he's now working for David Zale in New York learning how to be a money
manager and taking him on and it's just terrific for him because he'll have to go to get his master's degree and get an MBA but he's Davis a wonderful teacher for Betsy's she's got a lot of spunk you know she just got back I guess it's like one night of her two nights ago from South Africa she went with a group from her school she graduated early from NYU she's 21 and she spent several months in Spain is that correct Bobby with an invitee program and then she got on the plane after graduating early and she flew to South Africa about two weeks ago wonderful
wonderful experience and having all of the invitee professors with her and she just landed two days ago and when she landed she went and bought some gloves and that night she took a bus to Washington for the inaugural for the inauguration of Barack Obama that is that is very special and then David what David is a very special because he's her only Son and he had great great talent as a child and I remember this when we sent him to the Lamplighter School we gave him flashcards and he knew the answer to everything on the flashcard and what it was if you looked on the
back of the card the answer was a reciprocal what was all the front of the car how he figured that out is beyond me and so the teacher put the same thing on that blackboard he buddy figure that out and he only spent one year there but that was an interesting experience because he went from there to st. Mark's and he was a famous debater in st. Mark's he won the Harvard debate twice which to that point had never been done before and he went to Stanford graduated Phi Beta Kappa which distinction which is great his great teacher was condi rice and then he went to law school at the University of Texas and he's become the senior real estate attorney here in town for K&L gates which is a will be the largest law firm in the country that's Bill Gates's father's Law Firm formerly Houston lives using loose gear David is married yesterday Julie great and we have two children their grandchildren I should say we have Elizabeth Hope fields and we have
Andrea Morris fields with Mars named after MB and Elizabeth just got into Brandeis she's very excited about that and Andrew is a nice athlete and a very very good scholar too yeah and when he had a choice of language to take he took Latin which is very hard and he loves that so he has an interesting mind and we're just extremely happy with him and my husband and children okay well Cheryl his and was married to Tom phallic and had two girls and unfortunately a girls had learning disabilities but they're very happy where they are today their names we have Emily Emily Jennifer and they
were just with us they try to spend time with us but it's hard to have them away from school too often but they're just terrific kids and for their abilities they're doing very well in Charles married now to Gordon Logan and she's very happy I'm Gordon it's very intellectual which is good Cheryl's equal in that an avid reader and has two wonderful sons which have become her sons and their names are we have Caitlyn and Joseph great well I I think that's important to know because I think everyone likes to know about about your family life and even though you were traveling a lot for
work and busy with work and raising your family you've still managed to find time to be part of the community you've had some experiences in addition to the hospital with being able to really make a difference tell us a little bit about how you met Leonard Hausman oh that's an interesting story very very dear friend of mine he was a professor and PhD at Brandeis and dr. sacker who headed Brandeis came to us one day we had started a program really Donnie was instrumental in that called typ transitional year program where we took kids out of the ghetto and gave a year of remedial education so they can matriculate in one of the Ivy League schools and during the 60s I guess it was when they had the sit-ins at Brandeis those mostly the sale scholarships to who said that so doctor how did you feel about that at the time I wouldn't bother because this was the thing to do on campus okay and so dr.
sacra paid us a visit and he said you also always a big favor and I said well what am I your favorite about and he started telling us about all these kids and give him a lot of problems he said I want to try something that's even more radical than that I want to bring tariffs and his race to the Brandeis campus it's it's what's in the 1970s like late seventies early eighties yeah and he said ok I'll give you an initial gift of $25,000 if Leo would do the work I said him believe me alone gives out all these things that you want me
to do for you I just exhausted with the intellectual capacity and so anyway I said I want to take a month off and go to Nantucket and rest it's because I just been on two very difficult acquisitions and he said well dinner house was going to meet you there so he came to Nantucket with his wife and his children and it was love at first sight and so I said I would help him and so we start started at Brandeis I think it was called the Center for social and economic policy in the Middle East where we brought Arabs and Israelis to live together on
campus and gave him a master's degree after one year but they had to live together become friends and so forth and so the doctor sacker was replaced by a woman want to say it was maybe level of handler I'm not for sure and she was the president and she didn't like what we were doing because John Sununu wanted to join our board and I said I think our umbrella should be big enough that anybody should join our board and he wasn't very popular he was yes he she was the the governor of the state and had some bad feelings John Sununu was quite radical and
so she kept us off campus and so Harvard took us and we went to the John F Kennedy School of Harvard and that's where we did the program first thing Joe Califano was our chairman and telling Joe Califano he's a famous person here in this country he was a Catholic number one we try to pick out someone who wasn't Jewish and who and Eric and Joe Califano would just fit the bill oh yes and he got John Cardinal O'Connor to give us the million dollars to start this program through the Catholic Church Jerry's charities that's correct marvelous gift of the card we visited with the
Cardinal at his home on Madison Avenue in New York and so what we did is we have got the very best professors from Harvard and from MIT and we wrote a book which we call and think of it it was under the Institute of the Center for used to Center for social and economic policy in the Middle East and we did the plan for the West Bank giving the Arabs five things to begin with health education welfare tourism and the chartering of banks yes that was because to get them involved and things that they could control we left three things on the table water the
return of refugees and water return of refugees and this is the status of Jerusalem and so we couldn't solve them immediately we got the best brains Stanley Fischer for example I think he had the World Bank now or maybe there's really Bank appropriate Joe Califano John Carlin O'Connor general Alexander Haig was the vice chairman I was the vice chairman some people I can't remember all the names so and did you meet overseas well I got a call mother and I were vacationing for the first time in Santa Fe I got a call in the middle of the night I have to be in Tunis Tunisia
and in one day so I was a leader of this particular group I was a senior member of the group and I flew to Boston picked him up every flew to Zurich and Zurich to wherever we went to the Chinese Tunisia right and so we met with Yasser Arafat late at night he likes to meet late at night and everybody said weren't you afraid I said no everybody around me had an ak-47 so why would I be afraid and so we had the book and we had we've been with the Palestinian infrastructure someone were very positive about it for ruko to me the foreign minister
of totally against it but they decided to sign the Declaration of Principles which our governor government wanted us to do wanted them to do and attend the principles of the infrastructure of the infrastructure right and 10 or 11 days later they were in the Rose Garden of the White House if you remember thank you it's a rugby and if I recall and Yasser Arafat and they shook hands on this this was with Jimmy harder and the problems just talk about the problems there wasn't any problem with health health health education welfare tourism and the taxation of banks the problem was water the Dutch government gave
us two billion dollars to solve that problem and the Israelis were growing bananas which they could buy and grow roses instead the Jordanians were giving the water to their farmers we said charge for it because water is fungible you put a price on it he finds an equal level and then that was one the return of refugees there's a historical way to handle then you've got so many thousands come in which these rates they've agreed to and you give them each $35,000 or something to get started and the status of Jerusalem we said your richlum has to be split well I became a piranha over
there you just couldn't take that I said the Israelis couldn't handle and couldn't handle that at the American Jews couldn't handle it this was very unpopular and today I think both of them have come around to that viewpoint that if you really want to have peace and by the way with water there's no problem today with the return of refugees that has not been accepted yet and Israel's made room for so many of them and Jerusalem everyone has come around to the fact you have to have a two-state solution if you really want peace East Jerusalem and then they have the West Bank and so
they'll work out the the settlements and things like that but what happened is Yasser Arafat changed his mind and started the first and photographer and then you had the Israelis which had really championed Hamas at the beginning you know thinking that that was someone they could lean upon instead of a thought it was the one that they really should have put on the emphasis on and so you see what's happened and they absolutely will not accept peace at all they look for the destruction of the Jews and they want the whole of Israel today greater Israel whatever it's called so did your group disband well
Harvard kicked us off campus - but not because of what we did the Harvard people wanted to work with the Russians if you recall and the wives of some of the people who went over there teaching them how to run a democracy or investing in these companies and Joe died the Dean couldn't stand that so he kicked them both off campus which was a terrible estate and what's happened with the group continues number one and they've gone into now nursing they've created a nursing program for people from India from Bangladesh and I can't tell you all the background because it's not for release but they've
been accepted in the Middle East so it's they've changed their focus they've changed the focus because for example a letter went to Abu Dhabi and he got them to accept a branch of NYU he did the original the seminal research on that and the head of Abu Dhabi gave him 50 million dollars but wouldn't acknowledge that we played a part of it but the story broke in the New York Times on the front page and America higher education was mentioned at that as someone who submitted the idea others today other countries walk campuses today the main thing today is they're looking for education and they
really need education and so all these of great American universities we're starting campuses abroad how did you develop your philosophy dad just came to me naturally what are some of the what are some of the signs that you have shared okay Pisa well I can do that but I think you couldn't tell us something I can't remember the first thing I told them is to be the most important thing to teach my children is from the famous servant placed before you this day good and evil and life and death choose good not evil and choose life and choose good and I tried to inculcate this
in my grandchildren they're my children it's the simplest thing in the world that philosophy when you think about it choose life and do good and that's all I ask of them precepts well I tell them other things too I said they the Bicol not inherit the earth and you've got my sayings back they put it on glass it's the glass how do you see that Dallas has changed well I think it's become much more hospitable to Jewish people for example and I remember when Curtis petals if you recall met with the sale Foundation and said we shouldn't just look inward we should look outward what
we can do for South Dallas to make the people feel like they're part of the community and so forth and he was an inspirational leader by the way and part of working within be the first to recognize that segregation yeah we'd help me help from Jimmy Ashton he was the head of the public bank and he would he did the same things we do but he didn't want to be on the end of a limb without us in other words the bank would get a lot of criticism unless the sale foundation joined it which they did and if you notice Dallas people like Sam bloom
for example we never had a problem with integration of the heat encounters here we didn't have those things we decided as a mature city we didn't want to fight this out on the doorsteps of the school and we had marvelous leadership in those things how do you see that the Dallas Jewish community has changed over the years well I think one important thing is they become overly religious particularly Tiffany man you well and I think it's wonderful now the old dramatic juice that started it I think a lot of our offended want to use the old prayer room but just go to services on Friday
at its the 6:30 services and hear all the scene and chaining in Hebrew and everything it's the right thing for the kids today maybe not for my generation but it's been well accepted you've been involved with the senior with seniors the Dallas Jewish seniors tell us a little bit about what you've done I guess it started with golden acres and then it moved to the legacy well that's interesting Cheryl because I went many years ago to the dedication of the building out there and I remember Levi Alden said and he said the the challenge is how you take care of the old not the young
you're obligated to take care of the young you're not obligated to take care of the old and getting over I appreciate that and so they elected me the chairperson of the Dallas home for Jewish age foundation and you'll take a look at the line they gave me I spent about ten or twelve years there they had collected money over the years that they had we built it up to about twelve million dollars or so through good investing and so forth and I remember the help I got from a lot of people particularly at Hoffman for example he was a great believer in equities and equities
made a lot of money for us and so about how many years ago six seven years ago they brought me in as the head of the foundation they brought me a piece of property to buy which cost about six and a half million dollars and we didn't have the money but we had stocks and bonds and I said we'll sell all of our stocks now fortuitously the market broke I shouldn't say fortunately when it broke two months later but we had ours in cash so we paid about six and a half million dollars for the marvelous piece of land in Plano and my thinking on
that was they couldn't go to East Dallas again they couldn't go to West Dallas they couldn't go to South Dallas the only place that they could expand would be to the north that's where the Jewish population was going so we brought that piece of land it took them about three years to come up with the planning I had nothing to do with the planning they did a wonderful job event and I sat on all the committees as an advisor because I didn't have time to give the time to all of them you know and they've done a marvelous job and that we borrowed I think
nice I've had million dollars we raised with the land maybe 18 or 19 million because they sold the old golden acres and they took out a lot but it's been very successful and it will continue to be successful because that's the path of growth in the community and I didn't want them to make the same mistake that they made back when they went to East Ellis you know one of the things that we haven't spoken about and you're talking about your investments you left you left the family business and in the nineteen eighties the late eighties and then you started a new business tell us
about that now I didn't plan to go back into business and this was simply a lark for me one of my friends came to me and said I inherited three million dollars would you pay off the estate and manage the buddy I said okay I'll take you on and then with that never advertised a bit Alex Wyse Berg joined me and that's another story and then I hired a nice young man to over 15 years ago Michael Caine who another story who hired him and we built a nice business though very difficult today iceberg feels and we will soon merge it with another company and
you've been investment advisors I had to go to school become an investment advisor and it's worked out very well for the clients although it's very challenging times we've never been through the recession like this before and let's hope we can get rid of it and not go into a depression which is possible and inflation so you could have never imagined that you would leave the jewelry business and have a very fulfilling second career well I have to go back when I was in junior high school when they introduced me to stocks then I picked out the highest priced stock on the New York Stock Exchange
and it was a like L come in those days and then when I came to Dallas and they said he wanted me to invest for him and that was my first chance to put his money to work and then of course I took a course on investment at Columbia and I was chairman and investment committee at Brandeis for a year or so so I had good training but at this point now I'm looking forward to kind of retirement the next couple years when I get old I mean you know isn't that wonderful well from what I can tell you seem to still want to jump
out of bed every morning get to the office not to 5:45 though you know as we're getting ready to wind you before we head over to look at some of the memorabilia that you have so graciously arranged for us to see what are some of the things that you're most proud of as you look like back over these years well of course married mothers one thing into the relationship that I had was Marcin Hendon and Marvin Donny and Gloria they've opened their heart to me and taken the end as if I were their own brother and i truly appreciate that because difficult to handle we're
bringing in an odd person you know into the family group and they've done absolutely marvelous to me as close as any brother or sister to be tribute to you that one of their children that when i'm sorry that one of your children would be selected as the first chairman of our family foundation makes me very proud of you well they won't let you off the board now they're keeping off for another two years this question very interesting of course the ND and then role models the big lip she was a role model he was your mother's brother Mamie and also Ennis brother someone else the
members of the family Abed was marvelous to me and also was a mentor Goldy Persky another one the sisters was like a brother to me took care of me like she took care of Marcy Marcy I've heard of her only child who else has been a mentor to me I think that's about the family city she was marvelous to work with he tired much too young so another one of the brothers of the Liberty brothers Harry I wasn't very close to and Bernie wasn't what we could dissociate with well Bernie head down to Center center right but you what you're saying is it is you
look back to the family as your role models as the people that were inspiring as you were flocking over what we talked about this evening I said that you'd like to add bright neon well I've been the luckiest person in the world who found my life my turtle life and I take great care of her we had fifty five glorious years together probably not one thing ever came between us well you certainly set the example that all of your children have tried to follow in their own lives what's the torture they're hearing the best thing you can do for your children is whether on that
very lovely note we're going to turn off the tape and we're going to move over to Czech Republic and Bobby and I were there two years ago and this is in front of the hotel and we thought it was just a nice picture speech which they're really appreciated I said we were pleased that dr. Holt will initiate the first edna and mars a electric and pediatrics doctor hope barbara and i plan to attend the lecture in hopes that when you discuss protein nutrition we will learn how to get our three and a half year old son dated to eat as I analyze my reasons first a machine this lectureship I find that I'm indebted to for people whose deeds and words have altered my life the first two are headed in Mars a whose deeds set the example they raised me as if I were their own son and as a child can never replace and the child can never repay his
parents left he can only carry on their good works third I'm indebted to my wife Barbara with whom I shared hopes and rhythms and prayers in this very Hospital and in losing Laura's life's true leaders and lastly there's leave out woman whose great ideas from the Talmud has finally begun to sink in as Levi said last night one must make an effort and Barbara and I hope that our token effort will bring our Children's Hospital our wonderful Medical School and our dedicated doctors a step closer giving me back the things that I've talked in choose life not yet good not evil future duty - ho
future duty to act 99% of our greatest fears and never come true the meat do not inherit the earth and learn to cook Dallas home for Jewish age foundation and for serving 12 years as their chairman it's a very lovely gift and I won't read what they wrote but I wrote some very nice things about you I got this with this picture to the States but this is the time I met with Yasser Arafat and his group he asked him to is group did sign in which 10 days later he was in the Rose Garden of the White House shaking yes Arafat's hand with it
so cropping and I hoped at that time that we were on the road to peace I'm afraid he does a long ways to go if ever good thank you because I was flying on the plane from New York disconnected he and that was the day after Bobby Kennedy who was a shot and the man next to me told me he was a physician and I asked him did I think would Robert Kennedy pull through he said no he was shot on the medulla oblongata and you couldn't recover from that and I asked him ever hear much of Schenectady I asked him to come to New
York with me and meet MV because he needed money to complete his studies and he wrote in the book they didn't be treated him very kindly but he said young man work hard and you'll get the money so I couldn't tolerate that and on the way downstairs I told him that I would give him the money frankly forgot how much I gave him until I got this book from Norman Kaplan Dr Kaplan wrote me how nice it was that Lina giving the money and he said I gave him $15,000 a year for two years I didn't tell Bobby Jo but anyway it's so nice and
he wrote me this book with this wonderful description and he said mr. Leal feels dearly oh let me again thank you for your generous grant support back in 1968 it made a great difference pan and they will need to pursue my research ideas read paragraphs pages 87 to 91 all the best and he signed it Stevo Judas Steve Oh Judas did his first book he was a partisan and it was sloppy but catch the Germans and he gave me his first book back in 2005 and this one I didn't know about so Carmen Kaplan read it and he devoted about eight or ten pages to me in the book and and how I can't give the money and frankly I'm glad I've done it and I just did it again the other day with a doctor who I met through someone on the plane who I'm bringing to the Southwestern Medical School dr.
Moretti opened Anton who's an expert in creating a vaccine from yourself against men FOMA and the medical school finally has taken it in and let's hope he writes a book someday perfect unbelievable your memory is we've got a chance to say what our relatives who was a DP person displaced person and here's a picture leo fields and the sale bargain sale found their cousin by Corman in a fishery a camp for displaced persons in Germany and brought it to America in 1948 show us the picture and so here's what a person who was living in a one-room barracks didn't have a stove they had just
a little heater on the counter and very little food to eat and he and his wife and his baby girl we brought to America and neither came a manager in Isaiah Stewart Matt Corden and this book was written about someone a temporary manual Jerry crystal they called it the light in the Prairie perfect the first one shows me and everything I mean each of course back then used to bring these horses around which saw bushels and they took my picture this is a picture of being a Cub Scout uniform and that also is in Wichita Falls so I was about 12 years old at the
time tell us about this one down here Venson that was your korean service that's a picture of me this picture was taken after I left Korea this is my item of hokkaido the northernmost island of the curls and this is at noboribetsu and they got a picture of me as I went to this resort for a little R&R wonderful wonderful well a tea has never looked so yeah thank you thank you