Tribute to the dean.

In this issue of BLACK ENTERPRISE, our Annual Money Management Issue, we identify the nation's top African-Americans in the world of high finance. These 25 professionals, many of whom are managing directors at some of Wall Street's most prestigious firms, represent the triumph of educational preparation, hard work and the steely nerves necessary to compete on The Street. And all of them represent the legacy of Howard Naylor Fitzhugh, "the Dean of Black Business." Fitzhugh, who would have been 83 this month, passed away in July, as we were preparing our exclusive report (see "Fitzhugh: A Pioneer," In The News, this issue).

An overwhelming majority of the finance professionals featured in this issue have degrees from Ivy League institutions; a significant proportion of them have degrees in business and law from Harvard. Nearly 60 years ago, Fitzhugh became the first African-American to earn an MBA from Harvard Business School, after graduating cum laude from Harvard University.

However, the coveted Harvard MBA was not enough to overcome the entrenched racism of American business. While most of his B-school classmates landed jobs at prestigious Wall Street firms, Fitzhugh reluctantly turned to teaching, the profession of last resort for many well-educated African-Americans of his generation.

Fitzhugh's business brilliance, however, could not be denied. What began as a temporary teaching assignment at Howard University became 31 years of preparing black minds for achievement at the nation's top business schools as well as in corporate America. He developed Howard's marketing program, organized its Small Business Center and chaired the advisory committee of the Howard University Business School.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, after leaving Howard, Fitzhugh became one of the earliest authorities on black consumer marketing, pioneering the segmented marketing techniques now commonplace in American business today. He joined Pepsi-Cola in 1965, serving as vice president of special markets until his retirement in 1974. Other major corporations eagerly sought to learn and adopt his methods,

Today's Hottest 25 Blacks On Wall Street earn salaries of between $300,000 to more than $1 million. And they are responsible for billions of dollars in public and corporate finance deals for firms such as Salomon Bros., Bear Stearns and Goldman Sachs. Three decades ago, Fitzhugh learned that even a Harvard MBA was not enough to qualify a black man for a sales clerk's job in his native Washington, D.C. However, the brains, effort and nerve of the finance pros highlighted in this issue may never have seen the light of day if it were not for the vision of one H. Naylor Fitzhugh.