Chris, a longtime Brooklyn resident, died June 19, 2010, after a 10-year struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Coming to Princeton from Ridgewood (N.J.) High School, Chris gravitated to interests that he would pursue throughout his life: journalism (Daily Princetonian movie reviewer); photography (for the Bric-a-Brac); and music (Triangle Club pianist). He dined at Elm Club. After graduation, he was public information officer aboard the U.S.S. Midway, where he produced two cruise books that were a springboard to his first job as a reporter for Life magazine.
In 1965, Chris became Life’s first business editor. Three years later he took the same job at the Saturday Evening Post, but with its demise he began freelance writing. He was published in The Nation, Esquire, Harper’s, New York, and Institutional Investor. He won the Gerald M. Loeb Award and the National Magazine Award, among others. He wrote three books, including The Last Days of the Club, a Wall Street classic.
While continuing to freelance, he directed Columbia’s Bagehot Fellowship Program in Economics and Business Journalism and lectured at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. He also wrote for the Los Angeles Times before moving to Business Week, becoming its financial editor in 1991. Following retirement in 2000, Chris pursued his interest in photography.
Chris is survived by his wife, Nancy; three children; seven grandchildren; and several siblings.