William Armstrong Oates Jr., Life Trustee and Treasurer
B
illy (as he was known to most of us) died on 14 February at age 74 of multiple myeloma. He was a monumental figure in the life of The Roxbury Latin School: life trustee, the School’s treasurer for 35 years, and one of only seven people in the School’s 372-year history to be awarded an honorary diploma. His portrait hangs outside the Bursary, which is named in his honor. Our culture today tends, alas, to measure people in terms of their financial achievements. By that criterion, Billy was a stunning “success.” He did not start out as a rich man, so his success in finance is all the more noteworthy: he transformed and grew Northeast Investment Management into a $1.4 billion investment advisory firm, and he founded the Northeast Investors Growth Fund. He was admired and loved by his employees, all of whom he treated as valued colleagues. In 2000, Kirk Kazanjian’s book hailed him as one of the “18 Wizards of Wall Street.” Billy cared deeply about his clients: some of them had great wealth, but he paid equal attention to many of us who were people of modest means. His own father had been a schoolmaster, and he could always be counted upon at annual budget time to advocate for higher salaries for our faculty. As Roxbury Latin’s treasurer, he managed our endowment with phenomenal results. When he became treasurer in 1975, the endowment was $3.502 million. When he retired as treasurer in 2010, the endowment stood at $105.925 million. Billy’s achievement is all the more astonishing when one considers that the 2010 endowment had been reduced by the 2008 crash and by the School’s $26 million land purchases in 2006 and 2008. We all know men and women who make it to the top of their profession, but whose lives revolve almost completely around their work. Billy’s involvement in life beyond the office was extraordinary. First, he was a true lover of what the
Greeks called “the beautiful.” His beloved wife Muffy is a person of exquisite taste, and together they created in Dedham one of the handsomest homes and guest houses in America—filled with objets d’art collected over the 48 years of their marriage. As frosting on the cake, Billy went on to create a vast and stunning garden, where he spent many an hour and which he loved to show off. His aesthetic sensitivity and keen perception made him a gifted—and prolific—photographer. Billy was a collector—one would have to say an obsessive collector—of beautiful things. His autograph collection, begun as a boy when he wrote General MacArthur and received a signed letter in response, was ever expanded. He cherished, memorized, and often recited the poetry of Robert Frost and built up a remarkable collection of his works. He was mesmerized by the American West and accumulated a range of western art. He could not resist 19th-century engravings relating to the founding fathers. And it was natural that his porcelain collection would focus on American presidential china. Then there were the bronzes, marbles, Indian-head nickels, rocks brought from everywhere (often embedded in the walls
at Dedham), paperweights (for his office), and over 500 neckties along with an array of sometimes-exotic clothing…. His fascination with history and biography was based on a profound search for roots, and he spent a great deal of time exploring his family’s Midwestern origins. He delighted in introducing his grandchildren to the natural and historic sites of New England. An excellent hockey player at Groton School and Colby College (before he attended Harvard Business School), Billy was an avid, lifelong athlete. He loved skiing—a pursuit that eventually became a family affair involving his much-loved daughters Lilly, Kate, and Emily, and later their husbands and children—as well as golf and swimming. He became an avid mountain-climber who knocked off one range of mountains after another, including the Matterhorn with his daughter Kate. Billy was also an enthusiastic traveler. While his fellow travelers slept in, he was always up early, eagerly exploring the new sights and sounds. Billy believed in giving back. He was trustee president at Groton and a trustee of Colby where he had been a scholarship recipient. Colby’s president noted that Billy established an annual giving gift club at the college and quoted him as saying: “We have a chance to influence the future—to nurture our roots—to plant trees in whose shade others will sit.” His many charitable benefactions included endowments to support faculty study and travel at Roxbury Latin and Groton. But as amazing as his accomplishments were, it was not so much what he did but rather who he was that was most admirable. I have known no one more gifted in the art of friendship than Billy. In any encounter, he was utterly other-centered. The conversation was always about you. Many people go through the motions: How are you? What are you up to? Billy was unique in always remembering how you answered. He actually listened to you
N e w s l e t t e r o f Th e R o x b u r y L at i n S c h o o l
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