The Other Worlds Shrine

Your place for discussion about RPGs, gaming, music, movies, anime, computers, sports, and any other stuff we care to talk about... 

  • L. William Seidman, 1921-2009

  • Somehow, we still tolerate each other. Eventually this will be the only forum left.
Somehow, we still tolerate each other. Eventually this will be the only forum left.
 #136370  by Mental
 Wed May 13, 2009 10:15 pm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp ... 5#30726965

My grandfather passed on today. He was the chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in the late 1980s and oversaw cleaning up after the S&L crisis by being the first chairman of the Resolution Trust Corporation as well. He was an advisor to Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan and a Chief Financial Commentator for MSNBC, as well as managing partner of Seidman and Seidman (now BDO Seidman) for awhile back a few decades ago - kind of a big deal in the financial world.

If anyone wants to watch the coverage of his passing, it's fairly moving stuff. He did a lot as a public servant in America, and that's something you can trust irrespective of my bias to him as a family member, because MSNBC obviously didn't need to consult with me before filming this segment.

A lot of what he really did for the country and the banking sector in a different time is going to stay very relevant in today's crises, as well. He had some things to say on the mortgage crisis last year, particularly about the difficulties of government receivership of homeowner real estate (the government can't effectively caretake for the properties, or service mortgages very well on that scale, or in his words "fix the plumbing if the plumbing breaks". That was one thing about him - he never used fancy terminology to describe whatever the hell was going on. He would tell you in straight-up plain English you could explain to a ten-year-old, and he often did, to us, at family reunions, which is one of the few reasons I have any idea what the hell is going on in this financial crisis.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/26990406/


Rest in peace, Pop-pop. You'll be very missed.

 #136371  by Imakeholesinu
 Wed May 13, 2009 10:17 pm
My condolences.

 #136383  by Julius Seeker
 Thu May 14, 2009 2:33 am
Sorry to hear it. I know how it feels. One of my grandfathers passed away this Easter at the age of 96; really sad since he is the first close family member (and first of my grandparents) I have had who's passed away.

 #136392  by Don
 Thu May 14, 2009 12:16 pm
Sorry to hear that.

 #136397  by Flip
 Thu May 14, 2009 1:16 pm
Sorry Mental.

Cool life for your grandfather, though. Coming from the accounting world, i have a lot of respect for his accomplishments. BDO Seidman is a huge firm and the FDIC is a big deal. I say this in the nicest way possible... but isnt your family loaded then? Trust funds?
Last edited by Flip on Thu May 14, 2009 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

 #136398  by Lox
 Thu May 14, 2009 1:40 pm
Yeah, sorry to hear that, man. I lost my grandfather last February. It's tough stuff.

 #136404  by Mental
 Thu May 14, 2009 3:27 pm
Flip wrote:Sorry Mental.

Cool life for your grandfather, though. Coming from the accounting world, i have a lot of respect for his accomplishments. BDO Seidman is a huge firm and the FDIC is a big deal. I say this in the nicest way possible... but isnt your family loaded then? Trust funds?
Yeah, he did about as well as anyone could possibly do. I don't think lives are lived much better than his was, in that respect. I was going to say, for you accountants on this board - this is more or less a pinnacle of that type of career and something you guys could think of studying for methods or principles to use in your later careers yourselves.

As far as the family finances go, as an accountant I believe you are probably aware of the kind of reason why I don't tend to discuss that kind of thing in public. :)

 #136405  by Mental
 Thu May 14, 2009 3:31 pm
Lox wrote:Yeah, sorry to hear that, man. I lost my grandfather last February. It's tough stuff.
He was 88. He left a huge family behind and provided for them tremendously, had a tremendous business legacy, and is being remembered as a true public servant and a good and kind man. There isn't a lot to regret, really. Of course there is loss, but there's also the peace of him having set an example that it is very possible to live one's life in a way that good and decent. So in some odd way, there's a kind of reassurance there of the power of living well and honestly and with dedication. Does that make any sense?

Interestingly, as far as his legacy goes, this is what he had to say on the subject:
L. William Seidman wrote: "I'm not too great a believer in legacies. My father used to say, 'Put your hand in that bucket of water and then take it out. Do you see where anything's been there? That's the way life is.' "-- 1991 Press interview
Quite a contrast from the way he's being remembered, and quite something to think about, I think.