I have delivered hundreds of addresses before banking groups over the years, including talks before every state bankers association in the nation. These meetings are where I met the bankers who taught me most of what I have written about in this column, and who told me the stories that added flesh to the bones of banking for my students at Rutgers.
The downside was the travel. When asked what I charge for a talk, I always answer: "The talk is free; I charge to get there."
The scheduling could be a challenge. I am proud to say, however, that I missed only one class, when I went to the White House to meet President Ford.
But though I made my classes, I had some very close calls getting to and from banker meetings.
o There I was in Atlanta, and my plane to Dallas was canceled. I was desperate to get to Dallas for a big breakfast talk.
I went to Butler Aviation, and they told me there was no plane available to charter at that time of night. But they did inform me that a plane that crossed the nation with bank checks for clearance stopped in Atlanta every night about 2 a.m. and then went on to Dallas - and that the pilot might be bribed to take me along.
It worked. I sat on a bag of checks and made the trip in a Learjet in a little over an hour.
A year later I told my story to Paul Volcker, who had just retired as the head of the Fed. "That was our plane," he fumed. "You had no right to be on it."
o I was invited to make a Monday evening talk for Burlington Savings Bank in Vermont. Since I had a Tuesday morning class in Newark, N.J., I said I would do it only if they could get me back to Newark that night.
"We will charter a plane," the bank's president told me. The plane was a two-seater about 20 feet long, and the pilot was a 19-year-old whose license, I think, had been issued the day before. But a deal is a deal, so I squeezed into the plane and we headed south.
In a while my pilot decided it was time to find out where we had to land, so he got on the radio and asked the Newark air traffic controller, "How do I get there?"
Recognizing that he was dealing with a novice, this savvy man responded, "Follow the Hudson River until you get to the Statue of Liberty and turn right."
"What is the Statue of Liberty?" the Burlington Kid asked. (I swear I didn't make this up.)
I yelled, "I've seen it! Let me guide you!"
So we go down the Hudson and get to the statue, at which point I scream over the engine noise, "There it is! Turn right!"
The next thing I hear is the pilot asking the tower, "Where is the airport? I can't find it. You have too many lights, and lots of planes. What do I do?"
The wonderful air traffic controller, realizing that the jumbo jets all around would scare the kid, responded: "Stay low so you don't bump into the big boys. I will dip the runway lights so you can see which belong to the airport".
So the controller dips the lights on the entire three miles of runway - on, off; on, off. We made it into Newark, and I made my class.
o I was hired to give a luncheon talk to several hundred people at the old First National Bank of Appleton, Wis.
Some background: North Central Airlines, which had served both Appleton and Oshkosh, about 20 miles away, decided it needed only one of them, so it abandoned Appleton. The city fathers responded by setting up their own airline, Air Wisconsin - at first only to shuttle people between Appleton and Chicago.
I had a Wednesday night class, so to get to Appleton by lunch Thursday I planned to take United at 8 a.m. to O'Hare, walk over to the commuter terminal. and take the 11 a.m. Air Wisconsin flight.
But United was late. It was 11:25 when it landed at O'Hare and I ran over to the commuter terminal.
I was sure I had blown it - but when I got to the Air Wisconsin gate, the plane was still there.
My next problem was that there were several standbys milling around. I was sure that one of them had already been given my seat on this sold-out plane.
Well, no harm asking, so I said to the agent: "My name is Nadler. Any chance of making the flight?"
"You are seat 8-A," the agent said. Wow! I took my seat, and within a minute we left the gate to take off.
I got the Appleton only about 10 minutes late and was met by my host, Bill Meltzer, the bank's chief commercial lending officer.
"I made it, Bill," I exulted. "I was late, but the plane was late too."
"We financed that airline," Mr. Meltzer said. "We told them that plane was not taking off until you were on board."
Some say there are two ways to fly: first class and with children. I add a third: with the power of a bank behind you.
Mr. Nadler, an American Banker contributing editor, is a professor emeritus of finance at Rutgers University Graduate School of Management in Newark, N.J.
