Gordon, Oldest Harvard Alumnus, Dies at 107

Albert H. Gordon ’23, Harvard’s oldest living alumnus and a generous donor to the University, died in his New York home on May 1. He was 107 years old.

Gordon is the namesake of the Albert H. Gordon Track and Tennis Center and the Albert H. Gordon Professorship of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, and served a six-year term on Harvard’s Board of Overseers— the second of the University’s two governing boards.

“He was without a doubt the largest benefactor of the Harvard track program,”
said cross country and track director Jason S. Saretsky.

Gordon, who ran freshman track at Harvard, remained a fitness enthusiast throughout his long life. He was the oldest participant in the London marathon and continued to travel to work four times a week until he was 105.

“Even at the age of 105, he was still very sharp and very on top of things,” said Sartesky, who visited Gordon at his Manhattan home in 2006. “Mr. Gordon just had something about him that was very charismatic and personal.”

Gordon graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1923 with distinction in economics, and was also a Crimson editor.

He graduated third in his HBS class two years later, according to The New York Times.

Gordon arrived on Wall Street in time for the 1929 stock market crash. After leaving his first job at Goldman Sachs, Gordon purchased the stock brokerage firm Kidder, Peabody & Co in 1931 and led the firm through the Great Depression.

Gordon transformed the company from a struggling financial institution into what Forbes magazine called “a minor powerhouse” in 2005.

John C. Whitehead, former chairman of Goldman Sachs, described Gordon to Bloomberg as “a famous business-getter.”

“Work hard and never give up—those were very valuable lessons I learned from trying to compete with him,” Whitehead said.

Gordon served as the CEO of Kidder until 1976, and worked at Deltec Asset management LLC until 2006.

Today, one of the main roads into the business school is named after him.

Throughout his long life, Gordon continued to give back to his alma mater.

He served as the President of the Harvard Club of New York, the chairman of the Harvard College Fund, and was on the executive committees of the Harvard Varsity Club and the Friends of Harvard Track.

“All his life, helping people out and giving away money have been his favorite things,” Gordon’s grandson John Roberts told the New York Road Runners club, where Gordon sat on the board of directors.

“It’s incredible how he’s always looking for new ways to challenge and improve himself,” he said.

Gordon was born on July 21, 1901 in Scituate, Mass. He is survived by three sons and two daughters. All three sons participated in varsity sports at Harvard.

—Staff writer Manning Ding can be reached at ding3@fas.harvard.edu.