Word: talled
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When it comes to athletics, you would be hard pressed to come up with two more apparently contrasting figures than the current presidents of Yale and Harvard. Harvard president Derek C. Bok's tall, lean and rugged build reflects his undergraduate days at Stanford where he played varsity basketball. In an interview shortly after assuming the presidency in 1971. Bok recalled sitting on the bench watching George Yardley temporarily set the all time scoring record for the Pacific Coast Conference. I did not play a starring role in college" he said, "but I was an enthusiastic participant...
Watching the pair during a game, there's not much to distinguish them by. Both are typical Crimson starters--under six feet tall and only a little more than 150 lbs., darting past bigger opponents in a game in which sheer size and strength count for a lot. Both have been instrumental in Harvard's rise to the second spot in New England, behind archrival Brown...
Roger Birk, chairman of Merrill Lynch & Co., stands as tall on the job as in his profession. Birk presides over the largest U.S. brokerage house from a brown walnut stand-up desk that he uses for everything from reading mail to signing multimillion-dollar deals. He acquired the desk ten years ago to help relieve the agonizing backaches that plagued him after long hours in a chair. Those pains are gone now, but the desk has stayed. Says Birk: "I find it pleasant and more practical than normal desks, and even tension easing...
...current crop of top corporate executives who prefer to think on their feet. George Shinn, chairman and chief executive officer of First Boston Corp., a leading investment-banking house, has been a devoted stander for twelve years. Shinn, a Merrill Lynch alumnus who also had backaches, believes that tall desks are simply an outgrowth of evolution. Says he: "We crawled and walked on all fours before standing, so the upright posture is the most natural." Both Shinn and Birk are following in the tradition of Edward Allen Pierce, a Merrill Lynch founder who worked standing up until...
...taste for tall living has not given much lift to furniture firms since most executives have their desks custom-made. Shinn sketched an antique schoolmaster's lectern that he came across in New England, and had a carpenter copy the design. A specially built stand-up desk may cost $4,000 or more...