Thursday, June 2, 2022
Robb was a wonderful person outside of IBM and, at IBM , great to work with. We worked, golfed and travelled together for years. I admired his intellect as well as his practical side. But most of all, he was a great human being.
I'd like to relate a story that warms my heart to this day and exemplifies what a principled and decent person he was.
I believe it was Robb's 30th with IBM and he chose to have his dinner in the wine cellar of what I called a "Wall Street north hangout, a "go to" restaurant in Greenwich (Putnam Road?).Our boss, Lee Dayton, loved his wine and ordered the expensive stuff; others followed suit. In the end, wine flowed and overpriced cigars smoked . The bill was outrageous and Robb was beside himself although he had no control over the situation. So, as top VIP at the bash (a Vice President) , Lee hatched a plan; give the bill to me as a direct report to him and I would sign off and submit it to Lee for approval. Two signatures, case closed. In other words, keep it in the family.
NOT SO FAST. Lee and I had forgotten that only a few weeks before, my chain of command was changed from reporting to Lee to reporting to my legal boss at CHQ. So when I submitted the bill, it was sent to my legal boss. He exploded because IBM was in deep financial trouble at the time. The bill was sent back to Lee. Robb, feeling badly about the whole thing, offered to pay the entire bill. Fellow executives didn't think that was fair and offered to contribute $500 each. In the end, each of the 6-7 execs at the dinner contributed one-half and poor Robb paid the other half, $2500. But he insisted on doing so and that was just another example of a highly principled and decent person.
Alan Wolfert
