Remembering Joe Battipaglia
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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.
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And this Wall Street icon hadn't traded this life for something else.
But he had. He did.
Joe Battipaglia is dead.
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Some of you might not know the name.
But I bet you know the face.
Because Joe's was a familiar face.
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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.
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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.
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But he was physically imposing.
I often told him, "Joe, I like having you on set with me."
"You make me look tiny."
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We'd even joke about going on diets...
"Perish the thought," he once told me..."I'd lose my edge."
He needn't worry.
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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...
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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.
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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.
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Kids the same time.
The same age.
Same stories.
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Great rides.
Great guy.
A guy who opened the mysterious world of investing to those who wanted in
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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.
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But he's not going, he's gone
Joe at 55.