Richard Gordon Darman (May 10, 1943 – January 25, 2008), known as Dick Darman, was an American economist and businessman who served under five U.S. presidents but is best remembered as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget during the administration of George H. W. Bush (1989–1993).
Darman was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and grew up in, first, Woonsocket, Rhode Island, and then the exclusive Wellesley Hills neighborhood of Wellesley in southeastern Massachusetts. His father owned textile mills and marketed oil and gasoline. In 1960, Darman graduated at the age of seventeen from The Rivers School a college preparatory school in Weston in Middlesex County. He then finished with honors from Harvard in 1964 and from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in 1967.
Prior to serving at OMB, Darman held other governmental positions under President Ronald Reagan, including: Assistant to the President of the United States (1981–1985); Deputy Secretary of the Treasury (1985–1987) to his close friend James A. Baker, III, of Houston; and Assistant Secretary of Commerce (1976–1977). He also was a member of the faculty of the Kennedy School of Government and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on three different occasions between 1977 and 2002: as an Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, a Lecturer in Public Policy, and a Public Service Professor.
Robert Adam Mosbacher, Sr. (March 11, 1927 – January 24, 2010) was an American businessman, accomplished yacht racer, and a Republican politician. In sailing, Sports Illustrated called him "the unquestioned master of fleet racing." In business in 1954, he found a million-dollar field of natural gas in South Texas. Since then, Mosbacher Energy Company has been very successful.
His accumulated wealth and political connections placed the Mosbacher family among Houston's wealthiest families. He resided and his family continues to live in the affluent River Oaks neighborhood of Houston, Texas. He was U.S. Secretary of Commerce from 1989 to 1992, during the administration of his friend, U.S. President George Herbert Walker Bush.
Mosbacher was born in Mount Vernon, New York, the son of Gertrude (née Schwartz) and Emil Mosbacher. His grandparents were German Jewish immigrants. Mosbacher's father was a wealthy stock trader who divested himself of most of his holdings before the Wall Street Crash of 1929, so that the Mosbacher family did not suffer great financial hardship during the Great Depression. Mosbacher graduated from The Choate School (now Choate Rosemary Hall) in Wallingford, Connecticut, and in 1947 from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, with a degree in business administration. After graduation, he went to Texas where his father had some oil investments and entered the oil business himself. He met and befriended future president George H.W. Bush in Texas.
Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez (November 22, 1901 – July 6, 1999), commonly known as Joaquín Rodrigo, was a composer of nationalist music and a virtuoso pianist. Despite being nearly blind from an early age, he achieved great success. Rodrigo's music counts among some of the most popular of the 20th century, particularly his Concierto de Aranjuez, considered one of the pinnacles of the Spanish music and guitar concerto repertoire.
He was born in Sagunto, Valencia, and almost completely lost his sight at the age of three after contracting diphtheria. He began to study solfège, piano and violin at the age of eight; harmony and composition from the age of sixteen. Although distinguished by having raised the Spanish guitar to dignity as a universal concert instrument and best known for his guitar music, he never mastered the instrument himself. He wrote his compositions in Braille, which was transcribed for publication.
Rodrigo studied music under Francisco Antich in Valencia and under Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique in Paris. After briefly returning to Spain, he went to Paris again to study musicology, first under Maurice Emmanuel and then under André Pirro. His first published compositions date from 1940. In 1943 he received Spain's National Prize for Orchestra for Cinco piezas infantiles ("Five Children's Pieces"), based on his earlier composition of the same piece for two pianos, premiered by Ricardo Viñes. From 1947 Rodrigo was a professor of music history, holding the Manuel de Falla Chair of Music in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, at Complutense University of Madrid.
Ronald Wilson Reagan ( /ˈrɒnəld ˈwɪlsən ˈreɪɡən/; February 6, 1911 – June 5, 2004) was the 40th President of the United States, serving from 1981 to 1989. Prior to that, he was the 33rd Governor of California from 1967 to 1975 and a radio, film and television actor.
Born in Tampico, Illinois and raised in Dixon, Reagan was educated at Eureka College, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and sociology. After his graduation, Reagan moved first to Iowa to work as a radio broadcaster and then in to Los Angeles in 1937 where he began a career as an actor, first in films and later television. Some of his most notable films include Knute Rockne, All American, Kings Row, and Bedtime for Bonzo. Reagan served as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and later as a spokesman for General Electric (GE); his start in politics occurred during his work for GE. Originally a member of the Democratic Party, his positions began shifting rightward in the late 1950s, and he switched to the Republican Party in 1962. After delivering a rousing speech in support of Barry Goldwater's presidential candidacy in 1964, he was persuaded to seek the California governorship, winning two years later and again in 1970. He was defeated in his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 as well as 1976, but won both the nomination and general election in 1980, defeating incumbent Jimmy Carter.
Richard Noel Marx (born September 16, 1963 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American adult contemporary and pop/rock singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer. He had a string of hit singles in the late 1980s and 1990s, including "Endless Summer Nights", "Right Here Waiting", "Now and Forever", and "Hazard". Although most of his major hit songs were slow ballads, many of his songs had a classic rock style, such as "Don't Mean Nothing", "Should've Known Better," "Satisfied," and "Too Late To Say Goodbye". Marx placed himself in the record books by being the first solo artist to have his first seven singles hit the Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart (3, 3, 2, 1, 1, 1, 4). His record sales worldwide exceed 30 million. Aside from songs that he's written and recorded for himself, he has written, co-written, and produced successful tracks for other artists such as "This I Promise You" by NSYNC and "Dance With My Father" by Luther Vandross. The latter song won several Grammy Awards. His 14th and latest chart topper, "Long Hot Summer," performed by Keith Urban, gave Marx the distinction of having a song he wrote or co-write top the charts in four different decades.