Stanford whiz becomes second area Jew to net ‘97 Nobel

"In general," he said Wednesday, "I will spend some of it and save the rest by placing it in broad diversified portfolios of securities."

The 53-year-old Scholes won the award for co-pioneering a formula which simplified the process of purchasing stock options. Scholes' colleague, Robert C. Merton of Harvard University, will receive the other half of the $1 million prize.

By winning the award, Scholes became the second Jew with local ties to win a Nobel Prize in the last two weeks. Stanley Prusiner, a recipient of the Israel's prestigious Wolf Award, received the Nobel Prize in medicine for his work on brain-wasting diseases.

Scholes is one of two Stanford scholars to receive a Nobel Prize this year. A Nobel in physics went to Steven Chu for his work in cooling atoms with lasers.

After winning the prize Tuesday, Scholes told reporters that he was speechless, honored and ecstatic. The shock hadn't worn off Wednesday, when he was reached by phone. "When I woke up this morning I was still on cloud nine," he said. "It still hasn't sunk in yet, but maybe later -- perhaps in a couple of weeks."

Now a resident of Greenwich, Conn., Scholes was born in Ontario, Canada. His childhood role models were not sports figures or glitzy Hollywood stars. Instead, his heroes were always his parents, who are both now deceased.

"My parents were very important to me and encouraged me in everything that I did," he said. "They helped share and develop my love of economics."

The Nobelist who joined the Stanford Business School faculty in 1981 and became a professor emeritus in 1996, now spends most of his time operating his successful Greenwich investment firm, Long-Term Capital Manage-ment L.P.

When not there, at Stanford or giving seminars throughout the country, he finds time for golf and skiing.

Interestingly, Scholes' approach to skiing gives insight into the drive that helped produce his prize-winning work. According to his sister-in-law, Susan Scholes of Princeton, N.J., "When Myron learned to ski, he took a very scholarly approach and bought hundreds of video tapes and books on skiing."

In Greenwich, Scholes attends services at Temple Shalom, a Conservative synagogue.

When he's in Stanford, he attends services at Congregation Beth Am, his former synagogue in Los Altos Hills.

Bonnie, his former wife, is still an active member of Beth Am, and both children, Anne and Sara, were confirmed there.

Richard Block, rabbi at Beth Am, said of Scholes, "He is a most intelligent and witty man."

Block added that in the history of Beth Am, four of its members have won Nobel Prizes.

Although Scholes' expertise is in stock options and other investments, he has kept an eye on Israel's economic situation.

"I really think that the Israeli government is freeing up on the regulations and restrictions, and by letting the economy become more free and less socialistic, it can enhance its economy," he said. "However, Israel itself has been exporting excellent high-tech software products and has been opening competition within Israel."

Now that he's received worldwide recognition in his field, Scholes might find himself assailed by questions on investment advice.

For Bulletin readers, he offered the following tip: Invest in diversified portfolios of securities and save.

Perhaps that's not Nobel-winning material, but it certainly couldn't hurt.