David Walentas

His mother had to work two jobs, and David and his older brother Peter went to live on nearby farms, "milking cows and shoveling shit," as "an indentured orphan.

[2] He worked in Thule, Greenland as a laborer for a summer to pay off his student loans and then spent time traveling through Europe.

[4] After he returned to the U.S., he accepted a job with the Peace Corps but instead attended the University of Virginia Darden School of Business where he graduated in 1964.

[4] While in Asia, he met a schoolteacher from Rochester who was teaching in the Philippines; they married in Japan but the marriage only lasted a year.

[4] As the neighborhood was zoned industrial, his plan was to convert the buildings into back office space for Wall Street.

[4] He was on the verge of signing a deal with Lewis Glucksman of Lehman Brothers but it collapsed after their sale to American Express.