'I know this man'
It was about 20 years ago.
It was his first trip to the Philippines, the first time he would meet
most of his in-laws and the friends of his wife Loida.
She invited her friends
to her parents' Makati residence, which was just a block from my house.
Of her friends, I was among the few he had already met. No, unlike Rene
Saguisag, I did not go to school with him at Harvard. I had met him and
his wife in New York shortly after they got married.
I came late to the party,
marched up to him, extended my hand, and told everybody, ``I know this
man.''
I never saw Reginald F.
Lewis again, but it was relatively easy to keep track of his activities.
His wife visits the Philippines frequently. The letters do not come often,
but the Christmas cards come regularly -- and through his wife or his sister-in-law,
I would send occasional crazy messages all built around the sentence, ``I
know this man.''
About five years ago, I
was leafing through a back issue of Fortune magazine and came across a
long article on his acquisition of Beatrice International for $985 million.
At that time, it was the largest offshore leveraged buyout undertaken.
I didn't know (and still don't know) what an ``offshore leveraged buyout''
is, but that didn't stop me from waving that Fortune article around, telling
my friends, ``I know this man.''
Less than four years ago,
the Reginald F. Lewis Foundation donated $100,000 to the University of
the Philippines for several endowed chairs and scholarships named after
Francisco J. Nicolas, his late father-in-law. When the grant was announced,
I had another occasion to proclaim, ``I know this man.''
Two years ago, I told his
sister-in-law, ``You know, I saw Reggie's picture in last week's Time magazine,
and I said to myself, `I know this man...the name is on the tip of my tongue...I
forget the name, but he used to be a wide receiver for the New England
Patriots.'''
She laughed. ``He'll be
flattered to hear that.''
The Christmas card -- a
family picture with greetings for Christmas and New Year arrived on the
18th of January. I glanced at the picture and noted that Reggie didn't
look very much older than in that Time magazine picture.
Two days later, I got a
fax message saying he was dead.
``But I know this man,''
I whispered, with the sense of mortality one feels when a friend of one's
age dies suddenly. My feelings of sorrow had a tinge of envy: he had lived
a full life...and I hope that when it is my time to go, I will have achieved
even just a small fraction of what he did.
The man had many achievements
that continue to be talked about. I am sure I will have many occasions
to pay tribute to his memory by repeating the private joke, ``I knew this
man.''