Among proper-Bostonian Lowells and Lodges, the Cabots are known for "customs, not manners," and there is no more bohemian Brahmin than Harvard's stocky, cigar-smoking treasurer, Paul Codman Cabot, 66. Fiercely energetic, shatteringly frank, he can curse like a barge captain, yet guide a big investment like the skipper of a liner. Last week, two months before his mandatory retirement, he achieved a lifetime goal by pushing the market value of Harvard's investments past $1 billion. No other university comes close to such an endowment.
Cabot is equally proud and rueful. "These enormous figures could be very discouraging to the man...