Bill Daniels, 1920-2000.

• Author: WIESNER, PAT

INTEGRITY, DISTINCTION, CLASS

A couple of years ago Bill Daniels wrote me a letter about an article we had written in our magazine. He very eloquently made the point that real managers and leaders care most about the growth of the people in the business. Success and profit follow ethical standards and integrity.

Daniels lived a life of "firsts" that reads like a great novel, but his most notable bequest to the rest of us is that he has made more young people think about the importance of "doing business right and with honor" than anyone else in his generation.

Much has been written about Bill Daniels and deservedly so. But long after the words have faded and students at the Daniels College of Business wonder who their school was named after, one thing will stand grandly as a permanent and growing testimonial to what Bill Daniels was about: integrity in business and honesty of businessmen.

Most reports make Bill Daniels a billionaire. Roy Bliss, the cable giant from Oklahoma, said that Bill was "a great businessman and the best promoter of the cable business there ever was." He started and built enough firms to fulfill the most ardent dreams of a half-dozen entrepreneurs. He pioneered the cable brokerage business, building the largest and most respected business of its kind. He grew from scratch an investment-banking firm for the specialized mobile radio and cellular phone business. As recently as 1997 his company closed almost $6 billion in transactions in that one year alone. But in all these financial records, the Daniels Group was known for its integrity and class.

Over the years Bill owned and operated hundreds of cable...