Cy Youndahl looks back on ..23 with SEC;

              Cy Youngdahl looks back on...
23 with SEC His trademarks are a flower in the lapel,
a long cigar and an impish smile. The only
thing that varies is the flower, which
might be a lily of the valley, a rosebud or
a miniature mum, depending on the
season. He grows them all, of course, but
he prefers the rosebuds, his favorite
being the deep red Rubaiyat, though he
has also grown the deep yellow Fort
Knox variety and other hybrid roses grown
especially for their buds.
Cy's broad accent smacks of Boston.
He was born twenty-six miles from there
in the old, old village of Wrentham. "The
town is so old," says Cy, "that it had its
250th anniversary when I was about
thirteen years old. We had a big parade
and pageant at the time. I was an
Indian," he chuckles.
Commuting twenty-six miles to and from
Boston University daily during the 1920s
was an adventure in itself and, as Cy
puts it, "one of the reasons I didn't
graduate cum laude. The train didn't
stop at our station. It just slowed down.
So I boarded it on the run every morning
and jumped off on the fly at night."
When asked about his retirement plans
after his forty-two year career with H&S,
Cy mentioned the luxury of sleeping
late. When asked to be more specific,
Cy said, "Well, I get up at 5:30 now,
so 'sleeping late' probably means I'll
get up at half past six," spreading the
words out as only a Bostonian can.
Cy also mentioned a retirement chore
that strikes his fancy: a job, without pay,
with a tape measure manufacturer in
Michigan. "I'll test the product at beauty
shows around the country," he says
with a laugh.
Executive Office partner Bill Ouinlan has
dubbed Cy Youngdahl the "Poet
Laureate of H&S" though Cy prefers the
title "Poet Lousyate." The poetry that he
calls doggerel, and which he sings,
has become a tradition at the lighthearted
annual Christmas dinner of Executive
Office partners. Last year's rendition of
Good King Wenceslas, with lyrics
appropriate though notpublishable, was
a memorable performance.
Cy says that his family always liked to sing,
and he performed in his younger days
with a glee club in East Orange, New
Jersey, and a church choir in Brooklyn.
His singing career in H&S began "six
or eight years ago." The Firm had just
completed an SEC filing for a large
Japanese company. H&S had arranged
a dinner for the Japanese businessmen,
which included the company president
and his interpreter. After the dinner
the president asked one of his delegation
to sing the company's song. In response
a member of Nomura Securities, the
Japanese equivalent of Merrill Lynch,
Pierce, Fenner & Smith, sang his
firm's song.Then John W. Queenan,
former managing partner of H&S, looked
at his group and asked if anyone knew
an appropriate song. No one did.
"On the way home on the train that
night," says Cy "I made up a poem to
the tune of Titwillow, from Gilbert and
Sullivan's light opera The Mikado. If
singing was traditional at formal dinners
with the Japanese, I would be ready.
"When we handled the SEC filing for the
next Japanese client, we held a luncheon
forthe group. As it turned out,singing
is not traditional at a luncheon, but we
didn't know that at the time. I told Harry
Williams, then partner in charge of the
International Department, that I would
volunteer to recite my little verse—or sing
it. He said, 'No, don't sing it.' But then
when he stood up he said that I was
going to sing. So I sang it, and they were
very appreciative. Then it seemed if you
did it for one Japanese group, you had
to do it for all of them. That's the way it
got started."
Another of Cy's special performances is
his spirited reading of ads and jokes
from the satirical Bawl Street Journal while
he reports on recent developments in
the SEC field at the annual meeting of
H&S partners. In his final performance
as an active partner, last September,
he received a standing ovation.
The years ahead will not find Cy without
an audience for his wit and songs.
Cy and Barbara Youngdahl's elder son,
Curtis, Jr., ("he doesn't like the Junior"]
is a mechanical engineer in Manchester,
Connecticut, and he and his wife have
a son, Curtis Earle, one and a half
years old.To avoid confusion, he is called
Earle and, naturally his grandfather
calls him the Earle of Manchester. A
second son, John, is a civil engineer in
Philadelphia, whose daughter, Laura
Marie is two and a half. Cy and Barbara
also have a daughter, Carol Ellen,
attending the University of Hartford. It is
obvious that the family will play a big role in
Cy's retirement plans.
Over the years, Cy Youngdahl has won
the respect of associates and clients
throughout the practice. In May, Cy and
Barbara were invited to Miami for a
special farewell party by Florida Power
& Light, a client whose audit he had
supervised for ten years and whose filings
he worked on after moving into the SEC
department.
New York office partner Gilbert Tinker,
whom Cy had worked with for many
years on the Electric Bond & Share Group
engagement, says of Cy, "He is one of
the most intelligent people I have ever
worked with. He has an exceptional
ability to analyze a situation and to get
his point across."
Executive Office partner Phil
Sandmaier, Jr. says: "Cy is a guy with
the happy knack of being firm in a
pleasant way. Working in a highly
significant area, he exhibits the ability to
communicate an understanding of and
sympathy for the client's position."
Executive Office partner Hal Robinson,
who has succeeded Cy as head of the
SEC department, adds these notes. "He