“Right,” Fletcher drawled. “What have you got?”
“Well, as I just told you, he runs Collins Aviation. He’s the executive vice president—has been since he married his wife. His father-in-law is president and chairman of the board, but he really leaves the running of the company to Stanwyk. It is expected that within two or three years, once he gets a little age on him, he will be made president of Collins. His father-in-law is only in his late fifties but would rather sail his yacht and run tennis tournaments. He seems to trust Stanwyk completely.”
“How is the company doing?”
“Beautifully. The stock, what there is of it available, is high and solid. Never been higher, in fact. They declared a stock dividend last year. They’re considered a little weak in management, but that doesn’t matter so much when you have a man as young and as competent as Stanwyk running the show. And he does, absolutely. He’s a hard-working fellow. It is presumed that as his father-in-law’s executive team begins to retire in the next few years, Stanwyk will bring in his own fresh young team. It won’t be hard for him to do so, because he has made a point of knowing almost everybody in the industry.”
“Mind a stupid question?”
“I’m used to them.”
“What does Collins Aviation do?”
“They design and manufacture subsidiary parts for airplanes. In other words, they don’t make airplanes, but they might make the seats, or engine parts, or control panels, what have you. Without meaning to make a pun, they also have a satellite division that does the same thing for spacecraft. This latter division has grown terrifically under Stanwyk. Apparently he is an attractive, amiable, personable man who always seems to be able to get the right contract for his company at the right time. Someone said, ‘He’s firm, but he never presses.’ ”
“How much is a company like that worth?”
“To whom?”
“I mean, what is its net worth?”
“Well, Fletch, you don’t really know what you mean. Companies aren’t houses that have an approximate aggregate value. Companies are worth precisely what their stock is worth on the market at that moment. It has a considerable gross income, a nifty net return to the stockholders, a big payroll …”
“Gimme a figure.”
“If it were a house? If it were a house, Collins Aviation might be worth a half a billion.”
“Half a billion dollars?”
“Can you count that high?”
“Not even with my shoes off. Who owns it?”
“The Collins family—John, his wife and daughter—continue to own fifty-one per cent of the company.”
“Wow.”
“They are very rich. Of course, the stock is actually held in foundations and trusts and what-have-you, but it’s all John Collins when it comes time to vote. I must add that the Collins family, so you won’t think they’re complete dopes, have an amount equal to or greater than their investment in Collins Aviation invested through investment houses in Boston.”
“Phew. Why Boston?”
“You don’t know much, do you, Fletcher?”
“Not about money. I’ve seen so little of it.”
“Boston is the Switzerland of this hemisphere. It is chock-a-block full of quiet, conservative investment bankers.”
“I thought it was full of beans.”
“It is. Other people’s.”
“How do people get as rich as Collins?”
“If I knew, do you think I’d be sitting here? Collins is a Harvard graduate who started designing and making airplane equipment with his own hands in a rented garage on Fairbanks Avenue in the early 1930s. Patents led to capital. It’s easy. Go do it. Everybody says he’s a nice man, quiet, humble. He’s good to his friends. Most of the rest of Collins Aviation stock is held by friends of the family. They’re all as rich as lords. He’s made heavy contributions to Harvard College, the Cancer Fund, muscular dystrophy …”
“The Cancer Fund?”
“He’s given them something like a total of ten million dollars.”
“Recently?”
“Yes. Continuously.”
“I see.”
“Stanwyk is the perfect man to be Collins’s son-in-law, considering Collins doesn’t have a son of his own. Stanwyk is from a modest family in Pennsylvania. His father is in the hardware business.”
“Still alive?”
“I believe so. Why do you ask?”
“His parents didn’t come out to his wedding.”
“Probably couldn’t afford it. That would have been an expensive trip for them.”