Ben Stein: What My Father Left Me

(June 19) -- Recently, I spoke to a gathering of successful men and women in money management in a New England city. One of the men there asked me if I had a private jet. I laughed and told him I could not even remotely afford a plane of my own. He said he was surprised. He said he assumed I was rich because I had a famous father in the world of money. "No," I said. "No plane."

And then I added, "He left me a lot more than money."

My father, Herbert Stein, was a famous man. He was a distinguished economist, adviser to presidents, all-around wise man and dispenser of good sense on many subjects.

One of his most famous aphorisms is widely quoted. "If a thing cannot go on forever, it will stop," he said, speaking about the foreign trade deficit, although it applies to everything.

But although he worked largely in the world of money and economics, he was quite indifferent to money. He left my sister and me some inheritance, but not a huge amount by modern standards. Here is what he did leave to me, and to my beloved sister:

A good name. His name was never sullied by any allegation of conflict of interest, or taking money that did not belong to him, or doing any act while in public service that was not for the public good as he saw it.

I have tried to keep that good name and pass it on to my son and daughter-in-law. I am in the ring a lot more than my father was, and I get slimed a lot, but I still cling to that good name.

My father passed on respect and deep gratitude for the men and women who fight our wars. My father was in the Navy in World War II, and his father spent much of his life in the U.S. Army Cavalry, an off-choice for a Jewish immigrant from Russia. My father's respect for the men and women who keep us free was limitless. I try to maintain that spirit as well.

My father left to me and my sister a love for America that was beyond measure. I can recall his endlessly saying that nothing could really be that bad as long as we were in decent health and were in America.

At a Stein family reunion about 20 years ago, my father said that the only truly brilliant decision any Stein had ever made was to come to America. How right he was, and how much he emphasized that. He would tolerate almost any comment except one that criticized America or the fighting forces. That he would not abide.

My father passed on a respect for family and for love of one's spouse and children. Nothing in his world took precedence over doing whatever he could for his children. I cannot recall his ever turning down any request from me except for when I wanted a Corvette when I was in high school. (I bought one when I was out of school, and it was great, by the way.)

My father emphasized that work, and not whining and self-pity, was the key to unlock almost any door. He also made me understand that work was not only valuable for what one accomplished and one's pay, but also for the self-esteem it brought. This has been life saving in all of my life.

My father also tried to pass along generally prudent habits of behavior, spending and thrift. I have not been as good at that as I should have been, but I have done my little bit at it. I wish I could have been a lot better, but I seem to have been born with a wild spending gene.

However, his general and frequent advice to "be prudent" has been the rock I have clung to for almost all really basic decisions in my life.

He also passed down the concept that it was not wrong for a man to show love or sorrow or pain or even to cry about serious loss or serious pleasure. His obvious torment when his one and only wife of 62 years died before he did was cruel.

My father died 11 years ago. Not a day, not an hour passes without my thinking of him and what he left me. I do not have a private plane, but in my heart, when I think of what my pop left my sister and me, I can fly. For those of you who still have living fathers you can spend Father's Day with on the phone or online or in person, be grateful and treasure the moment.

Time is flying, too.

Ben Stein is an economist, lawyer, actor, comedian, public speaker and university teacher, and he was a speechwriter for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. He has also written several books, the latest of which is "The Little Book of Bulletproof Investing," written with Phil DeMuth.

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