US Department of the Treasury
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary John Snow and SEC Chairman William Donaldson during a meeting of the President’ s Working Group on Financial Markets at the Treasury Department, November 14, 2003.
a book by the bedside. Always a hard cover, never an e-reader.”
Donaldson exercised his body as well as his mind.“ He played hockey and tennis most of his life, and later in life took up golf,” said Jane.“ I was in my 50s and he was in his 60s when we got each other clubs. We were never great, but we wanted to be good enough to play anywhere in the world and not embarrass ourselves.”
Jane recalled going to St. Andrew’ s for the British Open one year and experiencing the original form of the sport on links land.“ The way they cut the grass around the greens is very different there,” she said,“ So no one chips. They putt from 30 yards away.”
When not traveling, home was in Westchester County; they also had an apartment in New York.“ We were in the city Monday through Friday and in Waccabuc most weekends,” said Jane.“ We switched that during the pandemic. Now I live in Waccabuc most of the time and am in the city a night or two each week. I’ m glad we kept the apartment.”
As a parent,“ Bill was a generation early for work-life balance issues,” Jane said,
“ but he was a very good father to each of his kids in different ways. Early on he was away a lot, but when he was home, he was always attentive. When our son Adam was born, Bill was in a different place in his life and was able to spend a lot of time with him. His older kids understood that, so we are a very strong blended family. We all have each other’ s backs.”
True to his roots, Donaldson“ always counted himself as a passionate Buffalonian,” said Jane.“ He remained connected to the town all of his life. We would visit there often. He was very close to his high school friends, some of whom still lived in Buffalo. We would spend weekends with them, and also go up for Nichols School reunions.”
It was friends and community that were the connection. By the time he died, Donaldson’ s only living relative in Buffalo was his cousin Georgia, age 95.
“ He really had a life-long connection with the people and also the culture,” said Jane.“ He never thought of Buffalo as a gritty industrial city. He would speak of it as a comfortable community in which to grow up. A place that was foundational to his character in many ways.” Indeed, one of Buffalo’ s nicknames is The City of Good Neighbors.
Donaldson attended public school until 7th grade, and then went to the prestigious private Nichols School on a scholarship.“ Bill later donated the funds to restore the middle school in honor of his parents. He was always a supporter of public education, while at the same time felt very strongly that his chance to go to Nichols was a great experience.”
From Buffalo to Wall Street, Donaldson made an impact through his leadership, actions and generosity. His memorial service at Alice Tully Hall drew a crowd of 500 people. As Cowen noted, it demonstrated how many people respected him and that“ so many others, just like me, will miss Bill. He was quite a guy.”
Gregory DL Morris is an independent business journalist, principal of Enterprise & Industry Historic Research and an active member of the Museum’ s editorial board.
www. MoAF. org | Spring 2025 | FINANCIAL HISTORY 21