Crisis on Wall Street: His Job at Bear Gone, Mr. Fox Chose Suicide
The meltdown of Bear Stearns Cos. in March marked the collapse of the modern securities industry, and the careers of some on Wall Street.</br></br>The financial crisis also claimed the life of a veteran Bear Stearns manager.</br></br>Barry Fox, a research supervisor who worked for nine years at the brokerage firm, took a drug overdose and then jumped from his 29th- floor apartment the evening in May after he learned he wouldn't be hired by J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., which was about to buy his firm. A coroner recently confirmed in an autopsy report that the death was a suicide.</br></br>Mr. Fox was devastated by the implosion of Bear Stearns and the financial hit he was likely to face, says Fred Philippi, his longtime companion. After several personal setbacks, "this Bear Stearns thing happened to be the last straw that broke his spirit," Mr. Philippi said in an interview.</br></br>J.P. Morgan, which hired nearly half the firm's 14,000 employees, has taken pains to help Bear Stearns workers displaced by the merger. The bank paid severance packages to those who weren't hired and set up an outplacement service to help them pursue job opportunities. James Dimon, J.P. Morgan's chief executive, also asked some of his bank's key clients to consider hiring Bear alums.