Really, Really Old?

Ever notice how many of the legends in the investing game are really, really old? I mentioned the other day that Peter L. Bernstein, the great chronicler of finance theory, had turned 90. But he doesn't have much on some of the giants in his own chronicle. Harry "diversification" Markowitz, who got the ball rolling in 1952, was born in 1927 (so, 81 next August). William ("CAPM") Sharpe is a relative kid, but he was born in 1934. An even more influential writer would be Burton (Random Walks, 9th Edition) Malkiel, 1931. And the feisty ex-editor of Barrons, Alan Abelson, was born in 1925. In the world of hands-on investing, we could start with Warren Buffett (1930), and a kid next to his partner Charlie Munger (1924). Among public figures, you'd have to name Mr. anti-inflation Paul Volcker (1927), keeping company with Mr. fiscal conservative, Pete Peterson (1926). As a kind of cross-over, there is market plunger and card sharp Ed Thorpe (1932).

What explains this --clean living? I suppose people like Buffett have to live a long time to prove that they are really good. But Markowitz and Sharpe are still dining out on work they did in their 20s. I suppose clean living may have something to do with it. Many have remarked on how the private lives of Buffett and Volcker are almost comically dull. But how explain Thorpe, who spent a good deal of his youth at the blackjack table.

Anyway, what's important to me is that I can survey this crowd with the same enjoyment I feel in the lobby of the Metropolitan Opera: at 72, I feel like a veritable stripling.