Paul F. Lozier – 50th Reunion Essay

Paul F. Lozier

11056 NE Mountain View Rd

Bainbridge Island, WA 98110

plozier69@gmail.com

973-886-9912

Spouse(s): Vailita Cliff (6 yrs), Barbara Day (15 yrs), Janet Patterson (partner-6years)

Child(ren): Samuel E. Lozier (1987), Danielle Elizabeth Lozier (1991)

Grandchild(ren): Only granddog Oliver, named after great (x2) and civil war veteran

Education: Vassar College (NSF science grant-1964) Yale, BA 1969, HBS MBA with Honors 1975

Career: Managing Director, Merrill Lynch 1977-1996, Energy Finance Specialist

Avocations: Fishing, Buying a boat, Concern about Yale, YMCA, Save the Children, KIVA

College: Trumbull

I was one of Inky’s men from near the bottom of the barrel financially. I was an only child, raised in a 600-square-foot apartment by a wonderful, smart and kind single mother who didn’t earn much more than minimum wage. I had an exemplary record in a large but rather mediocre high school and in state and national YMCA activities.

Yale impacted me at many levels, some positive and others debilitating. On the positive side I enjoyed public policy and reveled in the Political Union and Republican club. I also enjoyed the opportunity to frankly debate with brilliant scholars and fellow students from all parts of the spectrum and seldom with rancor. Conversely being mocked by the Master of my college for being a Republican was resented. The very best part was my brotherly relations with roommates and close friends.

On the negative side, the pressure and ill-defined stress of Yale amplified some serious insecurities formed in my childhood, carried forward and never addressed. I was an only child and could “fix things for myself.” I sort of knew that something was wrong with me. Even before Yale I had started to drink too much and that accelerated there. Later I found out that what I had was “panic anxiety disorder” and it had a major debilitating effect on my personality for a major part of my life. I feel I have been blessed with a lot of good fortune, I only wish someone had intervened and started something then.

After turning down a job at the White House in 1969 and escaping the draft, I moved to California after the girl I loved and worked there for three years. I then attended HBS where I did superbly. Then moved back to a job on a sinking ship and me with a sinking marriage. Truly the low point of my life. It resulted in my moving back to the East and going to work on Wall Street. That was bumpy at first, but a wonderful and prominent energy banker named Robert Green plucked me from the waste can and became a mentor. I became a pretty successful banker myself, finding that my folksy working-class style resonated with many self-made men. I really was inept at the in-house politics. I have two wonderful children, one of whom I am close to and one estranged because of divorce from her mother about 15 years ago. Prior to that I left the street and did some random consulting, focusing instead on coaching Little League and being Mr. Mom. The later years have been fun and I am now in Washington state with the best partner of my life. I think more often of Yale now and wonder if it in any way replicates the beliefs and ethics we enjoyed. The suppression of free speech assembly endorsed by the administration is abhorrent. Its inexorable growth reminds me of an ’80s conglomerate that should be broken into more manageable pieces.