A Tale of Two Cities - and Callings

Chuck Clough '60 Found a Balance Between Worlds

by Susan L. Wampler

The career of chuck clough '60 has been a tale of two cities, and of two vastly different callings - the lure of Wall Street and the summons of ordination in the Roman Catholic Church.

For 13 years, Clough was the chief investment strategist for the country's largest brokerage firm, Merrill Lynch. He managed to split his time between New York and Boston while racking up millions of frequent flyer miles traveling the globe evaluating emerging markets. Perhaps even more impressive, he also divided his time between his considerable Merrill Lynch duties and parish responsibilities at Our Lady of Help of Christians in Concord.

Clough deftly calculated his travel schedule so he could be in Boston from Thursday to Sunday to perform his parish duties. That also gave him time to spend with his wife, Gloria, their four children and now six grandchildren.

"I could always keep enough balls in the air to make it work. It all kept me off the streets at night," he jokes. Clough says he wasn't always as focused as he is today. "I was not all that serious a student at the age of 12," he says. His sixth-grade teacher in Jamaica Plain told Clough that Boston Latin School was accepting applications, so he applied. "I knew it was a special place," he remembers. "I obviously had a certain competence level to get into Boston Latin School, but I wasn't very disciplined."

It was the influence of the school's masters that turned the young Clough into a more dedicated student. "I didn't want to disappoint my teachers; I had so much respect for them," he says. "I thank the school for having the patience to stick with me."

He particularly remembers "Mad" Frank Sullivan, a sailing enthusiast who taught Class V English and used nautical terms in class. "It took me awhile to translate 'secure the aft hatch' to 'close the rear door,'" says Clough. Sullivan made certain his charges learned proper rhetorical structure. "When I reached college, I found I was far ahead of many others in developed study habits," says Clough.

Clough enrolled at Boston College in 1960. He became a liberal arts major, studying history and economics. In particular, economics fueled his imagination and led to the continuation of his education and ultimately to his successful Wall Street career.

Clough earned his MBA from the University of Chicago, where he was exposed to many leading economists, including the world-renowned Milton Friedman and several other Nobel Prize winners in economic sciences. Clough won a prestigious assistanceship with George Stigler, who himself won the Nobel Prize in 1982. Recruiters from leading companies sought graduates of the program, and Clough interviewed with a wide variety of firms, from management consulting to consumer products. "The more I talked to people from Wall Street, the more interested I became," he says. And the most interesting possibility of all was Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette Inc., at the time a new firm whose work Clough found particularly intriguing. "Back then, Wall Street was not known for research for institutional investors. It was mainly focused on the retail investor. Donaldson was the first to emphasize research," says Clough.

Despite his early accomplishments on Wall Street, Clough found himself drawn back to Boston. Clough left Donaldson at age 28 and joined a money management firm that eventually became Alliance Capital Management. He held several jobs managing institutional portfolios in Boston for organizations such as the Boston Company and Colonial Management Associates. Then in 1982, he joined SG Cowen, an institutional research firm much like Donaldson. "That got me back on the Street," Clough says.

In 1987, the opportunity to join the nation's largest brokerage firm presented itself when the then-chief investment strategist at Merrill Lynch left to establish his own firm. The company quickly offered the job to Clough. "I wanted to do it, but I wanted to live in Boston," he says.

"A chief investment strategist is on the road a lot anyway," says Clough, who was able to negotiate with Merrill Lynch to remain in Boston and spend two or three days every week in New York. "It was fun being part of two cities. I thought I would do it for four or five years, but I enjoyed being the center of attention and ended up doing it for 13 years," adds Clough, who retired in January 2000.

One of the reasons Clough stayed is because of the firm's launch of a global strategic operation, which gave him the opportunity to be chief global strategist evaluating emerging markets.

"It's an interesting job, anticipating major investment trends," says Clough, whose predictions were used to manage more than $350 billion in assets.

"It was an intellectual tour de force," he says. "I was constantly working with the world's best money managers."

Clough earned gold status on three airlines, traveling virtually every week and spending six to seven weeks abroad each year. "I have a million miles each on American and Delta, and probably a few million on other airlines as well," he says.

He traveled frequently to Asia, especially China, as well as Latin America, where he focused on Brazil and Argentina. "We're seeing those markets really evolve," he says. He also spent a lot of time in continental Europe and became a prominent advocate of that market.

Clough has appeared on "Wall Street Week" with Louis Rukeyser, CNN and CNBC, and been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune and Barron's. He is also on the Time board of economists. He has been honored by his fellow money managers several times as one of the nation's leading investment strategists by Institutional Investors.

Today, Clough is the chairman and chief executive officer of Clough Capital Partners, a private money market firm in Boston. With his retirement from Merrill Lynch, he has been able to focus even more of his time on his parish work and on helping not-for-profit organizations.

He became an ordained deacon in 1986, after four years of study (today, it's a five-year program). He became actively involved in the church through his interest in helping young people. He assisted with confirmation preparation and on retreats and became increasingly involved with parish work. "One thing led to another," he says. "You sort of get called."

Since his ordination, and throughout his tenure at Merrill Lynch, Clough has sustained a six- to 10-hour-a-week schedule of parish duties. He has performed hundreds of baptisms and weddings. This year he will conduct a seminar entitled "The Bible and the Businessperson."

When asked how he managed to balance these competing demands, he says simply: "You show up. Time makes itself available." When pressed, he adds: "Sometimes you dash from place to place." Clough chairs the Boston College Board of Trustees and serves on the boards of numerous other educational, hospital and charitable institutions.

All three of his daughters - Kristin, a speech pathologist; Susan, an elementary schoolteacher; and Kathryn, a public relations specialist at Dana Farber Cancer Center - graduated from Boston College. His son, Chuck, an actor living in New York, graduated from Northeastern University and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Shortly after he assumed chairmanship of the board, Boston College launched a $400 million fund-raising campaign, "Ever to Excel."

"The university has been attracting an extraordinarily capable student body. We need to continue to build the faculty resources and facilities to match the strength of the student body," he says. "I've seen Boston College become a major international university in a short period of time."

Clough also is a member of the steering committee for Boston Latin's Pons Privatus campaign. He continues to look back fondly - and with gratitude - at his years at the school.

"It's a clichZ¹ but I am what I am today because of Boston Latin," he says. "The school and the learning experience were extraordinary, then as now." •

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