Men Still at Work: Professionals Over Sixty and on the Job Read Online Free PDF Page B

and a role model is one whose behavior is imitated. For instance, if your parent was a doctor who worked well into the senior years, chances are you will aspire to follow in his footsteps. Nearly three-quarters of the older men in my study reported having one or more mentors or role models at some point in their careers. Forty-three percent said their father or other male relative, such as a grandfather, uncle, or brother, set an example or was the primary source of support and encouragement. Twenty-seven percent cited a boss, supervisor, or employer, and twenty-five percent cited a teacher, professor, or college/university dean as positive role models or mentors. Other admired mentors or role models included respected doctors, wives, Woody Guthrie, Red Auerbach, Red Skelton, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, Tom Hayden, Perry Mason, Harold “Doc” Howe, and Marian Wright Edelman. One wag said the “fear of poverty” motivated him to excel.
    For Larry Lucchino, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, older brother Frank showed the path to higher education and his mentor, the hard-charging, high-profile Washington attorney Edward Bennett Williams, opened the door to the world of professional sports. Now sixty-seven, he is still trying to balance a twenty-four/seven job with the rest of his life.

    Profile: Larry Lucchino
    Larry Lucchino, president and CEO of the Boston Red Sox, cites two people who had the greatest influence on his career—his older brother by six years, Frank, and Edward Bennett Williams, founder and senior partner at Williams & Connolly in Washington, DC. “My brother was the first in our family to complete college. Williams opened the doors to the sports world for me and had a profoundly positive influence on my career.”
    Larry describes himself as a “transitional man.” He came from a working-class family in Pittsburgh and attended Princeton University on scholarship where he excelled academically and on the basketball court. (He was on the team led by Hall-of-Famer Bill Bradley that made it to the Final Four of the 1965 NCAA Men’s Division 1 Basketball Tournament.) Despite Princeton’s elite reputation, it proved to be a meritocracy in which Larry thrived. After Princeton, he earned a JD from Yale Law School and became a specialist in sports law and litigation at Williams & Connolly. Edward Bennett Williams, defender of high-profile clients and owner of two professional sports teams, the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Redskins, was his role model and mentor at the firm. (Williams was a workaholic who, despite undergoing seven cancer operations, never quit working until his death in 1988.) Under Williams, Larry prospered. By 1979 he was vice president and general counsel for the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Redskins. In 1983 he acquired his first World Series ring when the Orioles won the championship. Five years later, Williams appointed Larry to his position as president of the Orioles; and, after Williams’s death in 1988, he became an owner and continued to lead the process of building the acclaimed new-but-old-fashioned Camden Yards ballpark, for which he had the original vision. In 1994 he became an owner of the San Diego Padres as well as president and CEO and again led a successful effort to fund, design, and build a new stadium. He left the Padres in 2001 to join the new baseball ownership team in Boston.
    In December of that year, John Henry, Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino, and a group of investors successfully outbid several competitors to purchase the Red Sox, Fenway Park, and 80 percent of the New England Sports Network. MLB approved the sale early in 2002. Henry became principal owner of the club, Werner the chairman, and Lucchino was named president and CEO. (Like Larry, John Henry and Tom Werner had experience in MLB before becoming stewards of the Red Sox.) Each has a seat at the table for all major baseball decisions, including acquisition of managers and players. Larry