Longest-serving Goldman employee dies at 98

Alfred Feld, a wealth manager who was Goldman Sachs's longest-serving employee and whose career tracked the investment bank's rise to predominance on Wall Street, has died, Goldman's top executives said in a memo on Tuesday. He was 98. Mr. Feld worked for more than 80 years at Goldman, starting at 18 as an office boy in 1933, Goldman chairman Lloyd C. Blankfein and president Gary D. Cohn said in a joint statement to staff. Mr. Feld earned degrees in business and accounting while attending night school and before eventually working in retail securities sales and becoming an early member of the firm's private wealth management division. A Goldman spokeswoman said Mr. Feld continued to hold the title of private wealth advisor and vice president in private wealth management, though he had given up active management of clients' financial affairs and continued as an ambassador for the firm as well as a mentor to younger employees. “I came so close to being fired after one day (on the job),” Mr. Feld said as his recent anniversary was commemorated this past summer, according to the Wall Street Journal. “I'm glad that didn't happen.” Mr. Feld, whose funeral will be held tomorrow in West Palm Beach, Fla., is survived by his daughter Marjorie and son Arthur, the statement said.