TOM BURKE --Bonds: Financial and
Family
Tom
Burke was the quintessential Wall Street man.
He broke into the bond business this way: It was 1985
and he was fresh out of Holy Cross. Nobody wanted him.
Undeterred, he put on his suit every day and attended
training courses at Liberty Brokerage --uninvited.
Impressed, the company hired him after three months.
Eventually, Mr. Burke, 38, became a partner at Cantor
Fitzgerald, heading the government bond desk. He lived
with this wife and children in Bedford Hills, N.Y.
He had a big personality. He knew how to hold his
drink and when to hold his cards. He was the kind of
person you wanted to be seated next to at a dinner
party.
That was the Wall Street man. There was also the
private man.
"He was successful, but that's not what made him
happiest," said his sister, Nancy Salter. "It was his
family."
That was the part the young guns did not see, the part
not learned in college. Tom Burke's mother always had a
happy birthday. Tom Burke's family never wondered where
Daddy was. Tom Burke's friends never lay sick, alone.
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