Steve Waldman

Full Transcript

Rosalyn Benjett, and I'm here with Ruth Andrus, who's our videographer. And we're here today to talk to Steve Waldman about his life and his family. And we are at the Waldman office at 6200 LBJ Freeway. Steve, tell us about your family. Let's talk about your family. They've been in Texas for a long time, aren't they? My grandfather came to Texas right at the turn of the century. Quick story about that. Sure. He was a baker, owned a little bakery on Hester Street, and immigrated from Poland. Owned a bakery on Hester Street. My grandmother and grandfather had a few children in New York, and my grandfather developed emphysema.

Went to the doctor in New York, and they didn't know from emphysema in 1900. But they did tell him that the air and the smog and the dust from the bakery in New York City was something that he needed to get away from. So they suggested that he move to Tucson, Arizona. He didn't stop smoking. He smoked three packs of cigarettes a day. They didn't know at that time that that was bad for you. So Papa boards the train, leaves Meemaw at home in New York with the bakery and the children that are there. and says, I'll send for you, and three months after I get settled in Tucson, you'll sell the bakery, you'll close it down, and you'll come on up with the kids.

My grandfather was Shomer Shabbos, and at 4.30 on Friday afternoon, the train stops in Dallas, Texas. He has to get off the train in fear of being on the train when the sun sets. He gets off the train, asks the policeman if there's a synagogue that he can attend. in Newtown, a very, very broken English. A policeman suggests he goes to one of the two synagogues that were in town at the time. Number one, it was a great day in Dallas, so the air was clear. Number two, you don't smoke on the Sabbath. So he felt pretty good. Never got back on the train. So I joke about the fact we could be living in Big Spring, El Paso, Clovis, New Mexico, anywhere along the way.

It just kind of depends on what time the train stopped on that day, on that Friday afternoon. And what happened after he got here He went to work driving a horse and buggy for a bakery The Goldman family had a bakery And he then sent for my grandmother who came to Dallas. They lived on Browder Street in South Dallas, very near Old City Park today, in a two-room house. My father and Uncle Willie were born subsequently. and then if I recall hearing my dad tell the story you know, we slept on the porch my grandmother slept with my aunt Sadie while he became Sadie Cohen in one of the bedrooms and my grandfather and my grandfather and the other three siblings of my father slept in the other bed together because the girls had no plumbing and the loud house and lived a very poor existence.

Had no money. My dad wore second and third and fourth hand-me-down clothes. He used to talk about the fact that he could look at his sleeve on his suit and see a clear reflection of his face. It was so worn and well-polished. The eldest brother was Morris Waldman. Morris was an ear, nose, and throat doctor, but not at that time. Morris worked, supported the family. My grandfather didn't work other than driving a truck for the bakery. He pretty much was a religious man, very observant, spent a lot of time in Agudah's Achem, which was a synagogue that he was a part of, and I believe was one of the rabbis at Agudah's Achem.

Even to the point that when my father got the coin from somebody for his bar mitzvah, My grandfather had to take that money to help support the family. But all the boys worked, everybody worked, and to bring the food home so that my grandmother would have enough funds to support the family. Uncle Morris, the eldest, worked until he was around 33, I think, and said, the other children were older then, and said, okay, guys, it's time now for me to go do what I want to do in life. I'm turning over the support of the family to you. and then Uncle Morris went to medical school and became a doctor.

Charlie, Uncle Willie, my father, Uncle Sam, who moved to Denver they all helped support my grandparents Uncle Sam Waldman and Uncle Willie Waldman both had tuberculosis and moved went to the hospital in Denver Uncle Sam never came home He loved Denver fell in love with a girl in Denver and came home to Dallas to tell my grandparents one holiday season that he was not coming back I remember hearing my father tell that my grandma, that you would have thought someone had died. The trauma in the household was just horrific. But they got over it. Uncle Sam moved to Denver, spent his entire life in Denver, became an educator, was the principal of a number of high schools in Denver, ended up opening some major high schools in Denver.

Many people know of Sam Waldman, who grew up in Denver, because he was the principal of all the new schools that opened up. He would take care of it. He ultimately taught some classes in college and passed away within the last 15 years, I think. Ant Lee, his wife passed away within the last 10 years, probably. So Uncle Morse was the eldest. Next was Sadie. Sadie Waldman married Harry Cohen. Harry Cohen owned a company called the Standard Fixture Company. The Standard Fixture Company made fixtures for stores and retail establishments. Uncle Charlie Waldman was not next. Sam was next. Then came up with Charlie. Charlie Waldman joined Harry in that business.

And the two of them built a very fine, established business over many years. Harry and Sadie lived on Windsor Parkway. And my grandmother used to go to Windsor Parkway. And that's actually where my grandmother spent her last years before she passed away. She died in 1973. Nope, sorry, 1970. Anyway, so Charlie, in my mind, was kind of the Don, the godfather of the family. He made sure everybody was taken care of, and he was a fabulous man. He married Ruth Siegel, who was a cousin of Ann Sikora, David Sikora, actually. Ann Sikora, sorry. And Ruth Waldman had two children. Everybody had children except Sam. Morris had Robert Waldman and Nancy Waldman.

Nancy Waldman is Nancy Weil now, married to Lowell Weil, Lowell's a podiatrist in Chicago. Robert Waldman was the head of the National Institute of Health but passed away at 55 from melanoma Very very awful situation brilliant Robert Waldman invented a flu vaccine that was oral was sprayed orally I don know how much you using it today Medical technology has come so far but it was a very important discovery at the time Next, Sadie Cohen had two daughters. Connie Tolmas. Connie married Hyman Tolmas. Hyman is a pediatrician in New Orleans who has since moved as a result of Katrina to Dallas. Hyman has two children, Jean-Ann and Alan.

Alan Tolmas is active in our community here in Dallas, has been for a number of years. Jan, Pastor, the other daughter, married Stanley Pastor. They have three children. Scott's a physician in Atlanta. Robin is a homemaker now in Atlanta, although she worked for Channel Like News for many years. And Andy, Pastor, is an extremely successful real estate entrepreneur in Austin, Texas. Owns a company called Endeavor. Endeavor is a very major real estate firm in Austin, general Austin area. Then there was Sam. No children of that marriage. They never had any kids. And Uncle Charlie had two daughters. Dana Simon was one of Uncle Charlie's daughters.

Is one of Uncle Charlie's daughters. Dana lives in Dallas. And the other daughter, Judy Ringer, who's in New York City, is an executive director for a not-for-profit in the music world. I'm not sure exactly where she is. She's actually here now visiting Dana for a while. After that was Willie Waldman. Willie Waldman or Bill Waldman was the sweet William of the family he had the most wonderful reputation a gentle man, a wonderful man the sweetest man kind, generous in 1967 Bill Waldman pretty much stopped working after the war in Israel and devoted the rest of his life to raising money for Israel he was a partner he was one of the Waldman brothers who was a partner in our firm and who really is the fabulous guy passed away in 1990 had three daughters Andrea Waldman Weinstein past president of the federation married to Lauren Weinstein Linda Waldman Abraham married to Yehuda Abraham Yehuda is a sabra they live in Israel in Haifa and in my era was Marshes changed the name of my era.

Friedman is her name. She was married to Mickey Sills, who was the rabbi at Hillel in University of Texas in Austin when I was in college. But Mehera lives in Tucson, Arizona, who's a therapist, and Willie and Sadie Kessler-Waldman both passed away. My father, Erwin Waldman, was the baby. He was the mistake. Six years after Willie Waldman was born, he was born. I've heard stories of a time when my grandmother was old and she was sick and my father was a baby just a few months old. My grandmother tried to smother him because she was dying, they thought, and that she knew there would be no one who would take care of him and that no one could take care of him.

So she tried to suffocate him. She was unsuccessful and she did recover. and ultimately my dad grew up very healthy and lived a long, healthy life, thank God. He was a fabulous man. My mentor was my closest friend. I was very fortunate to be able to work for him in the office next to him for almost 30 years, which was a real treat for someone. You don't get the chance to not only be a friend, but a business associate. I know I'll give you a lot of information, but you need to get information. Oh, yeah. That's good. So then there's my mother is Maxine Wallman.

My father and mother met. You were in Dallas. Met in Dallas. She was born in Chicago, moved to Dallas. And they met in Dallas. They got married in 1940. and had three children, Carol Jean Cohen, my eldest sister, although she would be very angry if I'm sure I said that. She married to Howard Cohen, who is my business partner, my middle sister, Sherry, Sherry Small, married to Dr. Neil Small, and then I'm married to the wonderful Jackie Walton, Jackie Yaron Walton. We have three children, Melissa married to Bart Blascoff. Bart and Melissa have two fabulous children, two grandsons for me, Hudson, two and a half, Parker, six months.

And Todd Waltman lives in New York worked for the Oxford University Press not married been dating a girl for quite a while but they never talk about it so we never talk about it He's actually 31 years old today, it's his birthday, and he's a great young man, and my baby, Michael Waltman, who is the current president of the Dallas Jewish Historical Society, is 28 years old, married to Natalie, and has a one-year-old little boy named Charlie Waltman, named after the Donna, our family, Charlie Waltman. Now, what did your parents do for a living when you were a child? My dad was always in the insurance business from the time I was born.

1939, when the Walton Brothers was founded, Bill Walton was the only person there. Dad came in 1949. I was born in 51. My mother never worked. She was a housekeeper. She was there to take care of my sisters and myself. My sister Sherry is six years my senior. So I had three mothers, Sherry, Carol, and Maxine, in a way. But Dad always was in the insurance business. I always remember. In fact, our whole lives were kind of surrounded by being in the insurance business. And what made that different from other kids' lives? I don't know. I would imagine in many cases, although it might have been the same for others, you know, you didn't leave it at the office.

You worked all the time. A, drank and slept insurance. And it kind of goes with the territory. How many years later, we're celebrating our 70th anniversary next year, i.e., drink and sleep insurance. And I just remember Dad was either working or actively involved in the community when I was a kid. Not that I have any issues with it, We didn't do a lot of father-son stuff that others may have done because he was so active in the community and so active in work. Where did you live when you were a child? I was born on Stanford Street or Stanford Avenue, but I don't even know the house number.

We moved when I was a baby, and I don't have any recollection of it at all. I think the house is still there, but Sherry and Kerr-Jean, remember it. It was a two-bedroom, one-bath house. We moved to 7231, the Saleya Lane, which is between North Haven and Royal, right off of St. Michael's, when I was three. And lived there until my parents moved in 1993 So that was 1954 55 to 1993 Great house Loved the house Huge yard. My parents didn't put the pool in until after we left to kind of bring us back and did a good job. Near the JCC, walking distance to the J.

And what did you do for amusement when you were a child? As a kid, I played with kids in the neighborhood. You know, we laugh about it today. The kids are on TV or playing with their computer games and things that we didn't have back then. We did have TV, but we would play Superman. We would play Rescue Hate. We would play out the characters, the Lone Ranger. Whatever it was that we were watching on television, we would play out those characters in our front yards, in our backyards. And we were free to roam. And unlike the kids of today, I remember as a young child walking down the creek that paralleled what soon became Royal Lane between St.

Michael's and the freeway. There was no street there. And there was a creek parallel just on the south side. And it was in the middle of the winter. And I had to be six. And I'm a mile from home. My parents didn't care. And I fell into the creek through the ice. and I remember how cold I was having to run home with my neighbors. He was five. But, you know, we got into mischief and trouble, but we seemed to turn out okay. Let's talk about education. Let's talk about what your experiences were in school as a child. Where did you go? What did you do?

I was a kindergartner at the lamplighter school. I may be the oldest living lamplighter person. And it's funny because I have great nieces and great nephews who went to Lamplighter. And they all laughed at the fact that I went there, too. In the second grade, I moved from that school to Arthur L. Kramer Elementary School, which was not too far from the house. Still a very vibrant school today. And I went there until the seventh grade. Ended Benjamin Franklin Junior High, Hillbrest High School. And Kramer, I was in accelerated classes with a lot of the Jewish kids. and a lot of the non-Jewish kids, and kind of knew and grew with those kids all the way into high school.

And what were your favorite things to do in high school I was musically inclined so I was heavily involved in the music program at Hillgrass I was in the musicals I played Colonel Hugh Pickering in the adaptation of My Fair Lady. It was a lot of fun. I was in a band. I played the guitar, played the piano, and sang. And I was in actually a couple of different bands to do that during that time period. Plus, I was also a member of an ensemble. We had eight of us sang a cappella. I really enjoyed that. It was a lot of fun. I still sang.

And then you decided to go to UT. I think that that was a foregone conclusion. Just like being at Walden Brothers was a foregone conclusion, going to the University of Texas was a foregone conclusion. All of my friends were going there. It was a thing to do. I didn't know that there was anything outside of the state of Texas, let alone outside of Austin. And that's where I went. Back in those days, we laugh about it today also, So if you made an 800 on your SATs, an 800, and were in the top half of your class, you were guaranteed admission to the University of Texas.

I made 1123, and it didn't matter. If you made 1,000 or more, it didn't matter what rank. You could be last in your class and still get into Texas. So I got into Texas, didn't apply to any of the school. Last senior year, I wore a University of Texas T-shirt, one of the two that I owned every day. I was a true Longhorn. And tell us about your college years. My college years were not an educational experience, unfortunately. They were a growing experience. I was a member of a fraternity. We started having Phi Sigma Delta, and then nationally Phi Sigma merged with CBT, so we became CBT.

I was active in CBT. I was a place trainer one year. I was involved in helping the younger generation. coming to the fraternity. I was also active in an organization called the Silver Spurs. They're the Texas Cowboys and the Silver Spurs. The Texas Cowboys are responsible for many fundraising and service activities, as well as the cannon that they shoot off whenever there's a score for Texas. The Silver Spurs similarly did fundraising service activities, and we were responsible for the cow, Bevo. The Longhorn Steer was our responsibility. I was president of Spurs my senior year, and that was a great experience. I was not a great student.

I was given the opportunity to be Enough rope to hang myself by my parents and I almost hung myself somewhat regularly in college. To the point where I really barely, barely made it out of school. And I regret that how many years later, 40 years later, because I should have been in that time and thought to see my own education and learning. but the reality is that you don't know then what you know now. I was very mature, very young. My wife and I were married at the end of my junior year, at the end of her sophomore year. So she finished college in three years.

I barely finished in four years. And so we were accelerated in that way. We'd been dating for six years, and we decided that what's next? Let's get married. So I called her parents and said, if you can continue to give us whatever you're giving her now, and my dad will give us what you're giving me now for one more year, let us finish school, we can make it on that $550 a month. So she got $250, I got $300. We lived on $550 a month for nine months in May of 1973. I came home to come to work for the Walton Brothers. So you always knew that was what you wanted to do?

It was for my conclusion. Your family has been really active in the Jewish community as well. Let's talk about your Jewish affiliations during your childhood. We belong to Shareth Israel. We were high holiday attendees. I did go to religious school there. I have a promissor there. I was confirmed there. But the reality is that my father in somewhat of a rebellion against my grandfather who did nothing but go to shul didn go to shul very often He went for the bar and bought mitzvahs when we were it was timely Obviously there were a lot of weddings there and other ceremonies Uncle Willie was the past president of Sheth Israel But Dad, we went there and I loved it.

Rabbi Norman Cohen, not Norman Cohen, Norman Shapiro, excuse me, was my, I was his first bar mitzvah. I don't know how long he lasted this year. Anyway, so with the sheriff, that was my religious affiliation. Very active at the JCC. My dad was the president of the JCC when I was a junior in high school. And we were always very active. It was the place. It was the Jewish place to be as a kid. How about at home? When did your family do to celebrate holidays? We were not focused so much on Shabbos. We didn't keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day of relaxation and rest and enjoyment for us, but we didn't like the lights every Friday night.

And rarely did we do anything as a family that I wouldn't say had a relationship to the being. Shabbat didn't go to Shalom. The major holidays were very important. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Besach all of those were very very important in our family and the seders were huge again, Irwin having all those brothers and a sister and they all came to Willie Walden's house there were people in rooms I didn't know existed so many tables the maze of the people and so that was an important time for us even though we weren't actively involved religiously or from an observance perspective I felt and always feel a strong connection observance wise when I am in Shul when I go to Shul so the thing to me that's great about Judaism is that you are someone allowed you are allowed to do your own thing if you feel comfortable doing that socially from a social action perspective I feel we're a very and strong, race in that way.

But it didn spend a lot of time in Shul What kind of interactions did your family have with the Jewish community the Gentile community at that time Interestingly the Gentile community I would say not much other than the neighbors in the neighborhood We were somewhat friendly with the neighbors in the neighborhood. I had some anti-Semitic situations take place when I was a kid, probably no different than any other kid growing up at that time. dirty Jew. Kids would go, I've gotten a few fights, probably not nearly as many fights as my dad got into as a kid, but I got into some fights. And my parents were friendly neighbors, active on the PTA to a degree, but most of their focus was in the Jewish community, very active in the Jewish community.

Let's go back to when you started working at Walden Brothers. I started work June 1, 1973. I just celebrated my 35th anniversary at Walden Brothers. I went in, and it was a small office. The first office in our building, Erwin and Bill had built a building in Central Expressway, 4061. North Central Expressway. Now everybody's going to know my password, 4061. It used to be anyway. We joked about the fact that no one would think, who would think? So my computer password always used to be 4061. It was a beautiful building. They built it in 1967, and I moved in in 1973. And I walked in the first day, and Dad said, this will be your office.

And it had all this stuff in it. It was kind of the room that all the stuff was stored in it. And your first job is to clean it out. So I cleaned it out and found a place for it, got rid of a bunch of stuff. And I had to paint it because it was unpainted. And there was no molding on the side of some kind of a vinyl. the flooring and ceiling like this. So I painted and cleaned it up. They bought me a desk and for six months I did nothing but study. We had a nice gentleman who was our agency manager.

He was very, very knowledgeable and my whole focus for that six month period was to find out something and learn something that I could be smarter than he was. It didn't ever happen. But it was kind of a game for me because I was really smart, and I didn't want him to be that smart. I wanted him to be smart So I studied and I really grateful that I did because he gave me a fabulous foundation for what I have done since One of the things that I pride myself in personally is the fact that I extremely knowledgeable in my specific area I immediately began studies for a program called CPCU, which is Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter.

It's a master's degree level program for property and casualty insurance. I became at CPCU in October of 1980. So that's unusual, not so unusual, it's a ten course program. It can take up to two a year. It took me a little more than five years to get it done. Now, you've also been active in a lot of insurance organizations. It just kind of goes with the territory. I've been on the board of the Independent Insurance Agency of Dallas, I've been on the board of the Independent Insurance Agency of Texas. They have different names now. I have served as a member of a couple of dozen insurance company, insurance agency, liaison groups.

You can call them producer councils, where the agent is involved and the company is involved. They talk about issues between the two groups. How can we better serve our client? What can the company do to make it better for our client? And then they come back and they wonder, what can we do as agents to make it easier for the companies to do business and so on. I've chaired locally, regionally, and nationally agents councils for the different carriers that we represent. I've been the president of an insurance company. In 1982, we formed a group of agents in Texas, formed a company called Lone Star Insurance Company Limited, which was a captive insurance company, and it was a reinsurance company that we worked with another carrier, Grumman Forrester, to reinsure coverage through.

It was a profit-seeking, not so much a profit-making venture. We had a great time. We learned a lot about that side of what we do, and I think it helped me better understand the nuances of what the insurance company side is. We shut down Lone Star. about 10 years later I was president for two years. And that was a great experience, that was a lot of fun. Which projects have been closest to your heart? Business or otherwise? Business. We'll get to the rest of the life. I would say, The business projects that have been closest to my heart have been growing this company. We are really in a great position, well thought of in the community, in spite of being well thought of in the community.

Working really hard to maintain our level of integrity, recognize that there's a time to walk away and knowing when that time is from an opportunity that may not necessarily be an opportunity, that we're here to serve our client in the most fair and equitable way possible, and that the clients that we deal with are extremely important. I always tell people I have five client groups. The most important client group, and I laugh when I say this, but they are my family. They are important and I really need to remember all the time that they're my number one client. If I'm not taking care of my family, I'm in deep trouble.

Not in any order for the next group. My client, my actual insured client is my client, the people that we do business with. The insurance companies we represent are my client because we have to make sure that we deal with them in a way that they want to choose us first. They want to work with us first and we're the most important. The next group of clients, again, not in any order, are the people that work at Walden Brothers. They are so important to the success of our company. If I'm not focusing on them and taking care of them, we're all in trouble, and they're fabulous.

I have nothing without them. None of us are. And then the fifth group, our fifth client group, would be the community. I really feel strongly about the community, and that group is just really important. So I guess my most important project would be building Walden Brothers, bringing in some youth. We have five young producers, ages 45, and out of 28. And they're strong, they're intelligent, they're ethical, they have high integrity. And I'm just getting to watch that happen. I'm proud that I'm able to do this and to continue. Howard and I are able to continue what Bill and Erwin started many years ago. We joke about the fact that Walden Brothers is the goose that lays the golden egg.

We are trying so hard to keep the goose healthy and to do all the things that we can do to continue having the goose with a lot of our life And you also been active in many Jewish organizations Fortunately so Can you tell us something about that Sure. My Jewish community work started when I was very young, too young. I chaired the membership committee for Sheriff Israel. I had no business chairing the membership committee for Sheriff Israel. I was 25 years old, and they had no business giving it to me. I had no business doing it. We were okay. I mean, it kind of has its own life, but that got me into that experience.

I was on the board of the show, a very interesting opportunity to serve on that board. And then didn't do very much for a while. In 1983, which would have been, I was 31, I was asked by the Jewish Federation of Greater Dallas to participate in a mission to Israel for free. And I read the letter, and I went to Uncle Willie. I said, here, read this. He read it. I said, what's the catch? He laughed. He said, there is no catch. He said, you'll see soon enough, but it's free. All you had to do was agree to come back and solicit 10 people whose cards were rated at 1,000 or greater.

And the whole requirement, the mission was the first, the whole mission. Harvey and Gail Weiner led the mission. And my wife got the letter at home. So I come home, and I said, can you believe this? We get this letter. And I said, I don't understand. I called this out. I'm a battle man at the Federation. I said, what's the catch? She laughed, there is no catch. So my wife and I went to Israel with the Federation. Big catch. The catch was me. And I led the next year's Succubre mission. Subsequently, led 10 missions to Israel on behalf of the Federation. The largest mission I led was in 1995, which was the Minyan or mega, they called it so many different things.

mainly we called it Dominion Mission. There were 435 people from Dallas and went on that mission. When they all said 47, they came to Dallas, former Earth, and we had a logo on the plane of our mission logo. And that took six months of my life. While I was still working, I spent six months planning and preparing for that. So after the mission program I got active in the Federation Again I been the board of the JCC The Federation was really my true love and focus I had to take a little step back in 1993 when my wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis because I didn't know where that would lead us.

She and I talked about it and I said, I said, no, at the time for me now, I was on track to become an officer. And at that time, it was important that I focus on her, make sure that the family was strong and healthy. Once we realized that MS is not a death sentence, that it's so different from that, and that life was going to degrade and move forward, we eased our way back into activity within the community. I became a vice president of the federation and ultimately became president from 1999 to 2001. Interestingly, another great thing that I think I got to do for this community, for me, was I was allowed to chair the search committee for Sheriff Israel when Rabbi Offsar was appointed to Emeritus, and we were able to bring Rabbi William Roshan to Dallas.

That was a great accomplishment for our community. I'm so glad you did. Yeah, well, so am I. And I have to tell you, it was not me. I just was the lucky one who got to sit at the end of the table and get everybody to stay in order. The community was fabulous, made up of a wonderful cross-section. I'm getting a chill remembering of our community. And we interviewed so many rabbis and so much behind the scenes. And I'll tell you a quick story about how we got Rabbi Roshan. Danny Gordas was a rabbi that used to come in as Sheriff Israel, do the high holiday services.

And one year we're looking, between Roshan and Yom Kippur, Elliot Gershyn had a group of people at his home, and I went over to see him. I said, Danny, I need to talk to you. I said, he knew what I was doing. I said, I want to know who are the top ten rabbis in America. I said, I don't care how happy they are. I don't care how comfortable they are. I don't care anything about their current status. I just want to know who they are. I had found that the rabbis that were available were not the rabbis that we wanted to have to share with these rabbis.

For whatever reason at that time there wasn anybody out there that we saw that we felt was the right person so i trying to figure this out so danny said well we just kind of give you names of people and he knows and to go back to the committee and we assigned a couple of rabbis to five different people and steve fish gets bill gershon and each person called up and said hey we're on the search committee for Congress of Israel we're interested if you are we'd like to talk to you Bill Rashawn was the only one agreed to talk and so Steve turned over to me and I began to dialogue we had a group of people that went to Minneapolis to go to Shul it was all covert because he was employed with Shul we feel badly because we really did kind of sneak him away from them.

But he wasn't happy, and if he wasn't happy, I felt it was okay to pursue it. I remember I was at a meeting with one of the companies we talked about earlier, insurance companies, in Hawaii, and Bill was on his way to Israel. So I'm in Hawaii, which is two or three hours, four hours a different time from here, maybe five. And Bill was in New York, it was in there, and he was in a meeting with the board. And I'm in a time different. And we're talking for an hour on the phone, and my wife is looking at me, saying, when are you going to go?

We're in Hawaii for crying out loud. And I said, no, this is really important. So we had a great conversation, a number of great visits, and what a great thing he has done. I claim no responsibility at all. He likes to recognize me for that. It was clearly a community-wide, community-wide, the true process-driven effort, which I love, and that's been one of the most enjoyable things I've been able to do as a representation agent. That's terrific. That was great. Let's talk about Dallas. What was Dallas like during your childhood? Dallas was fabulous. Dallas was small. Dallas was compact. I didn't know Dallas beyond what now is LJ Freeway.

I didn't know Dallas beyond what was 75 Pacific Expressway. I didn't know Dallas really beyond Marsh Lane. So if you would take downtown Dallas, which I rarely went to, up to Forest Lane, 75 and Marsh, that was all I knew from Dallas. Because every Jew lived in that area. ACA was very active in ACA. The people were all closing, everybody. It's funny, the only people I really didn't know were the Temple Emanuelites, because at Emanuel, they had their own youth group, did their own thing, and not a lot of those kids were involved in ACA, so I didn't really meet some of those folks until later in life, but I loved Dallas as a child.

I'm going to say, very comfortable. What a great place to raise a family. How do you think the city has changed? It's grown. It's changed with the times. I still think it's the greatest city in America. Opportunity-wise, this is the can-do capital of the world. The people here are friendly, genuinely so. I do think that when someone comes from out of town, if they expect people to grab them and say, come be my friend, that's not going to happen. But if they exert themselves and push themselves forward and say, hey, let me get involved, let me help you, I think there's a great, great place for people to come.

I love Dallas. Like every other city in America, this is the 21st century, we are dealing with problems that we could never have imagined in 1960, 1970. My kids didn't do many of the things, I believe, that I took chances and did. They couldn't. First of all, we were watching them more closely. Not that I didn't trust them, but our parents were so naive to what could be. Or maybe it was just what was expected. We knew what it was going to be, and we didn't want our kids to do anything. I don't necessarily like the fact that I could walk free when I was six years old, and that my 16-year-old grandson or grandchild won't be able to do anything.

I may not be happy with that. That's the time of time. Can we stop? We have time, Ruth. Are we out of tape? We're doing fine. Sorry. How did you meet your wife? Do you remember how you met your wife? Sure. I can see it right now. It was at an AZA sweetheart dance. And she had a date. Mark Rosen was a stepson of Hank Bobner. Hank Bobner was the athletic director of the JCC when I was a kid. And Mark had a date with Jackie Yaren She had a pink long dress on her Her hair was up and it was one of those Tom Pierre dresses and she looked stunning and as if she had walked off a wall Her posture was so perfect and my mom tells me, this I don't remember my mom tells me, I came home that night and said I'm going to marry that girl that I don't remember but I do know that I fell in love with her pretty quickly and I was dating a girl at the time and we engineered it where I broke up with mine and she broke up with Mark and we dated pretty steadily from 1966 until we married in 1972.

The first date was to a Dallas Chaparral basketball game. Chaparral ultimately became the San Antonio Spurs. And I had a guitar. I had a blanket. I went to Bachman Lake, put the blanket out, played the guitar. You know, I was using every tool I had. She was very fortunate. I am married to one of the most incredible people in the world. Amazing woman. Amazing woman. And tell us about your children. My children are fabulous. I don't know how we got so lucky. I really have to blame it all on her. I don't think I was such a great parent. But I think my wife is a fabulous parent.

My daughter Melissa is stunningly beautiful. And I don't say this because I'm just her father. She is stunningly beautiful. Not only on the outside, but on the inside. She is a wonderful, caring daughter, caring granddaughter, caring wife, and caring mother. She is active. She is intelligent. She is fun, so much fun, that everyone loves to be with her. Just hilariously fun. We have a great time. She has two wonderful children. She worked here for seven years and retired to be a mother. It was terrible. We felt awful. She was so successful here, so important to our company. We have a rule at Baldwin. If you're a member of the family, you have to work here full time, 50 hours a week, because it sends the wrong message to the rest of our staff.

We didn't want to take that chance. You also have to work somewhere else for two years before you eligible to work here because this is paradise We want them to see what the real world is like before they come to the Waller Brothers My second child is Todd Todd a renaissance man Todd is president of his class at Green Hill. Todd went to Duke University and got in with the help of my sister who's a college planner. Got in through the music program, took a couple of music classes, liked it. He was also the lead in some plays in Green Hill, very active music. He was always making music and composing and doing things.

So he comes home Thanksgiving before the end of his senior year in college at Duke and says, I don't want to go to medical school. And all the pre-med stuff said, hey, tell me I'm good in this music thing and I want to give it a try. So I said to him, okay, you just remember the joke was, what do they call the guy who graduates last in his class in medical school? doctor and it was difficult to earn a living in the career he was about to choose, academia. And I said, you just know that. And he says to me, Dad, as long as I know one thing, he says, our family loves to go on vacation.

We have fabulous time on vacation. And he says, I may not be able to afford that in the career that I'm choosing. And I apologize. I said, Todd, if that's the one thing that worries you about going in this career, your mother out make sure you attend all the family stuff you go after it so he went after it got his degree in music from Duke got a degree in music from University Wisconsin got a degree in music from Yale and now is the publisher of the United States music catalog for Oxford University Press great job ten years younger than any of his peers still probably don't make any money but the point is it has a great life loves New York everything about it is great and he and his girlfriend who spent 12 days with us in Colorado in August, which is our sincere pleasure to have them.

Great kid, intelligent, thinking, 31 years old today, adore my son Todd, adore my daughter. Then my baby boy, Michael Wallman. Michael was premature. Michael was born six weeks early, had hyaline membrane disease, and initially we were concerned very much about him. I remember it was a very traumatic experience for us. Michael came out a fighter. Michael is a fighter He is as much like Erwin Waldman as anybody I know but he got the Maxine Waldman column Erwin Waldman had the fire Michael got the fire He got it under control So smart. University of Pennsylvania, warden, undergrad. 500 people in each class. He was an undergrad at warden.

Very hard to get into. Of course, my son Michael would go to that school so I could have to pay for it. He then spent a year in New York at Deloitte as an actuary of consultant. and he and Natalie both came back to Dallas when my peers here reached out to him and said, we need you at Walden Brothers. He is remarkably successful in everything he does. He is successful at Walden Brothers beyond my wildest dreams. He is successful in the community. He's 28 years old and already the president of a not-for-profit, and he's the chairman of the foundations of the scholarship committee. I'm trying to get him to slow down a little bit I don't want to be burnt out when he's 30 he's married a fabulous young lady and they have a wonderful wonderful job my kids are great so much caring and loving before we finish, who do you think are your role models?

do you have anything? anybody like that? Erwin Waltman without a doubt Bill Waltman without a doubt I have a few Erwin was a master, a master thespian. He molded me just like he wanted to mold me because he knew when I got out of college, I needed to be knocked down a bunch. And he knew how to do it. Unlike me, he didn't have remorse after he told me what he needed to tell me and come back finally, so I really didn't need it. He was fabulous. I have to tell an Erwin Walton story. Erwin Walton and I had a big fight, probably in the mid-80s.

Cellular phones had just come out, and Howard and I had bought two cellular phones, each at $3,000. Plus, who knows, didn't care about what it would cost to not do. Each phone was $3,000. We had to have them to do our business. So, Ben gets to bill, he signed all the checks, and he comes into my office at $4.31. He says, what is this? I said, those are cell phones. He says, on whose authority did you buy them? I didn't own the company. He said, on whose authority did you buy them? I said, well, we needed them. He said, is this my money? You spent $6,000 of money.

So we got into a huge fight, and by the time we finished the fight, it had nothing to do with the cell phones. We were what I referred to nose-to-nose. Our noses were big enough, that didn't mean we were very close, but our noses were almost touching. And I hate you, I hate you, I hate this place, I hate this place, I want out of here, I want out of here, I don't ever want to see you again, I don't ever want to see you again, back and forth, back and forth, to the final point where he says to me, I quit, I don't want to be here anymore, I am so out of here.

And I grabbed him by the arm, and I said, no. I quit. I'm done here. I don't want to be here anymore. I walk out of my office. I walk halfway down the hall. I said, OK. I've got two kids in Green Hill. I've got one kid getting ready to go to college. I have no money in the bank. I've got a house mortgage. I've got a car payment. I've got food to buy. I can't quit. I turned around, halfway down the hall, come back. Mom, she's still in there fuming. I said, you quit. He looks at me, and it was great. It was as if the script said, no, son, read right here.

It says, Dad, I'm sorry. I didn mean that I was wrong I so sorry And I said to myself it was as if I was saying no Dad the script has changed Here the new script Read the script Things can go on like they have I can do this anymore I need you to recognize the value that I bring and stop knocking me down. I'm sure he wasn't knocking me down. I'm sure it was just a father-son spat that had gone into great proportions. Anyway, he walks out the door and goes home. I don't hear from him for a few days. And I'm not going to call him.

I'm not going to call him. Finally, he comes back to the office. If you give my dad, this is so fabulous. He comes back to the office, and he's sitting in his chair. And he's way down low in his chair. I walk in. I say, good morning. How are you? And he looks up, and he says, I'm OK. Talks really low. He said, your mother and I have been doing some talking over the past few days. And I've decided to retire. And I look at him and I say, Dad, you are not retiring. This is never going to happen. But some things have got to change.

And he looks at me and says, we'll see. And he turns around and looks away. Well that was a powerful moment for a little bit And the we see I didn know what that meant And of course things began to change dramatically from that point forward About six weeks later typically to me I call my mom and I say you know I really feeling bad about that argument Dad and I had, I don't know, is he okay? Is he feeling all right? She said, honey, I don't know what you're talking about. He had a golf tournament that he played in. He was gone for three days.

I don't know what you're talking about. My dad didn't go home to talk to my mom for three days. He played golf for three days and came back three days and decided to say, okay, we'll see where this goes. That was my dad. He knew how to work us better than anybody's business. The other role models would be Bill Walden because he was so kind and generous and gentle and loving to the community. And I have to say it, Harold Kleinman, I think, hung the moon. And one of the greatest people that this community has ever had. And if I could just be a little bit like Harold Kleiman, I would feel like my life would be a huge success.

I'm never going to get there. But he's somebody that I really would love to emulate. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anything you'd like to add? No. I talk too much. No you don I just have had a fabulously wonderful life And I 56 years old I hoping God willing to have a lot more to come I trying to slow down a little bit here I'm trying to separate my life from my work. First time in my life. It's been an interesting experience. I even have a new phone, which is my non-work phone. From Monday at 8 o'clock until Friday at 12.30, I use my Blackberry and my regular phone.

At 12.30 on Friday until Monday at 8 o'clock, I have a second phone. Nobody knows the number, but my family, my partners, and my managers here. When I travel out of town, my Blackberry's going to stay at home. I'm really trying to stop the seven-minute, day-a-week, 24-hour-a-day thing. And it's been an interesting time. The most fortunate, I guess I would say one more thing. I am the most fortunate person you will ever meet without a question in my mind. I'm really that way so I'm very lucky thank you God and thank you Dallas for being so good to be in my family thank you