Remembering Joe Battipaglia

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF "YOUR WORLD": Last night on fox business I simply asked, "Say it isn't so, Joe?"

Say I got it wrong.

That my friend of nearly three decades hadn't died.

And this Wall Street icon hadn't traded this life for something else.

But he had. He did.

Joe Battipaglia is dead.

Some of you might not know the name.

But I bet you know the face.

Because Joe's was a familiar face.

In bull markets and bear markets...Joe was the guy always popping up just explaining the markets.

A bull when folks were bearish.

A bear when folks were bullish.

A rock in an industry where let's just say personnel skills were frankly rocky.

Joe was none of that.

It's trite to call him a giant.

But he was physically imposing.

I often told him, "Joe, I like having you on set with me."

"You make me look tiny."

We'd even joke about going on diets...

"Perish the thought," he once told me..."I'd lose my edge."

He needn't worry.

Because the skinny on Joe.  Fat chance finding anyone better.

A man who brought Wall Street to Main Street.

In fact, when I started interviewing the guy back in the early 80s...

Literally on the street.

I worked for PBS' nightly business report back then...always frantically calling him for a last-minute comment on something...

And there's old Joe happily barreling down from his fancy-schmancy office tower to oblige.

I was a clumsy novice reporter.

Roughly my age, Joe was already a patient, giving teacher.

And over the years we shared the same New Jersey train to and from our different lower Manhattan worlds...he was a great friend.

Kids the same time.

The same age.

Same stories.

Great rides.

Great guy.

A guy who opened the mysterious world of investing to those who wanted in

And even ripped some of his Wall Street colleagues who never quite figured decency out.

Not Joe.

The gentle giant...who never forgot ...the little guy.

But he's not going, he's gone

Joe  at 55.