At 99, Healthy, Wealthy and $treet-Wise

Bernard M. Baruch liked to say, “Old age is 15 years older than I am.”

Judging from the effervescence of Rosalind W. Alcott, that is her outlook on life.

“I feel better now than when I was 50,” she said in her Los Angeles apartment.

That, by the way, was 50 years ago. On Saturday she will observe birthday No. 100, and she can’t understand why there should be any fuss about it. “I just went on living, trying to help people along the way. It never occurred to me that I would reach this age. In fact, even now I don’t believe it.”

Early to Bed, to Rise

As she has all her remarkable life, she will go to bed early, arise early, eat meals free of salt and sugar and make sure she keeps up with the day’s news events.

“Fortunately, I don’t have an ache or a pain--and I couldn’t say that when I was 50,” she said. “I haven’t seen a doctor in months.”

It didn’t seem inevitable, when Alcott began as a secretary for $8 a week at the Wall Street Journal in Manhattan early in the century, that she would go on to become a millionaire. More importantly, she went on to become a major benefactor of education. Indeed, in one of her bedrooms is a plaque attesting to her charitableness on behalf of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Now and in the years to come, students are finding and will find themselves possessing college degrees because a canny woman used certain strategies in an era when they were necessary.

“Women weren’t employed in many jobs when I started,” she recalled. “There were only four of us (women) on the payroll at the Wall Street Journal. I began when I was 16 or 17, and was secretary to an editor.

“I purposely cultivated a low voice, because of the anti-feminine prejudice. Men who had spoken with me on the phone were sometimes surprised when they showed up and saw that I was a woman.”

Initials Only

Another tactic, she said, was to avoid using her full signature on correspondence, instead signing: “R. W. Alcott.”

She stayed five years, held a few other jobs, such as stenographer, then joined a banking house, first as a secretary, eventually working her way up to the executive echelons. Along the way, on her limited earnings, she began buying stock.

When World War I broke out, the handwriting was on the wall at her banking house. Business with such financial capitals as Paris and London became impossible. Alcott moved along to a Wall Street brokerage firm, as a partner--undoubtedly one of the first females to hold such a position.

And she continued making sure that a portion of her income went into the buying of stocks.

“It was always for cash,” she said with emphasis. “I never owed a cent to anyone. In my lifetime I have had credit cards--because they were sent to me--but I never used them. I always paid cash for everything so no one could tell me what to do.”

A Fateful Decision

Not only is this the month of her birth, but it is the month during which an event happened that changed lives, indeed changed the nation. On Oct. 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, and fortunes that had been amassed turned to ashes.

In the prior September it certainly hadn’t seemed a fateful decision that a certain woman had decided to liquidate her entire personal stock portfolio.

“One month before the crash--and I honestly don’t remember why--I sold everything I had in the market,” Alcott recalled. “Something made me do it.”

It was this decision that enabled her to continue prospering. But nobody, least of all Alcott, had any idea that someone born the year Grover Cleveland was inaugurated as President for the first time would be celebrating a birthday a century later.

The walk is with a steady gait without a cane, the penmanship is with a firm hand, the blue-gray eyes still have neon in them.

Hour-a-Day Walk

“I go to bed at 8 p.m. and wake up at about 4 a.m.,” Alcott said, preparing to go outside for her daily hourlong walk.

“I have always felt there was an advantage in getting up early. It makes the day seem longer. And you do more in the morning than you would later in the day.”

The secret of her longevity? Heed the thoughts of her nephew, prominent local attorney Martin H. Webster:

“She has what I would call a gastronomic gravitational sense. She stays away from the foods she should avoid--salt, sugar, red meat--and gravitates toward things that are good for her--salads, vegetables.”

His aunt verifies this, adding that she has always been a small eater. “I have always felt satisfied and good after I eat, because I never overeat.”

For breakfast, according to her live-in nurse/companion, Simplicia Cruz, she usually has half a grapefruit and a glass of Ovaltine. Lunch is usually a sandwich. Dinner is often chicken (baked), together with vegetables.

Witch Hazel on the Face

“I use no cosmetics,” the soon-to-be centenarian said. “And look, I don’t have wrinkles the way old women usually do. The only thing I do special is wash my face at night with witch hazel.”

She keeps current by watching the news on television every night and by reading The Times cover to cover every day.

“She still keeps up with the market,” Webster said. “There are members of our family who still call her for investment advice, which she gladly gives.”

Inside Alcott’s tastefully furnished apartment, not far from a framed print of “Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer,” is a table lamp covered by a shade.

Not in the same artistic league as a Rembrandt, but then he didn’t make it to his 90s to do any creating.

“I made that shade with my own hands two years ago,” the former stockbroker said proudly. “I was forever buying ones that would wear out, so I took a ball of wool thread and wound it around a metal frame, and it has lasted ever since.”

Three ‘Younger’ Siblings

Both of her husbands have died, and she had no children, but her relatives (she was one of eight children) include a 98-year-old sister in New York, a 96-year-old sister in Florida, and an 88-year-old brother in New Jersey. She keeps in touch with all of them by phone.

Don’t mention the East Coast to her. She attributes her slight hearing impairment, which requires her to wear a hearing aid, to the many colds she said she suffered while living there. “I moved to Los Angeles in 1940, and have had only one cold since then.”

Judging from her current good health, she still has years to go, but when her days have ended, her generosity will go on.

Aid for Worthy Students

“In her will she has specified two purposes for the bulk of her estate. Some of its proceeds will go toward the establishment of scholarships for worthy students at three institutions,” Webster said. “And it is stipulated that there be an absence of any discrimination by reason of race, religion, sex or national origin.

“Secondly, loan funds will be established for needy students, also to be given on a non-discriminatory basis.”

Right now, however, all attention is focused on Saturday, when Alcott reaches the magic mark. A week later, relatives and friends will gather inside a local home at a birthday party for her, hosted by Webster.

“Mind you, I’m not keen for this sort of thing,” the senior citizen scolded gently.

She has assured everyone, however, that she will be there. And anyone who knows Rosalind W. Alcott also knows that, as usual, she will conclude any conversation with the words: “Good luck.”

It is something she is familiar with. There is a saying to the effect that “too soon we get old and too late we get smart.” This is one person who didn’t wait.