Epilogue — The Inheritance That Wasn’t Money
During the following eighteen months, we built Halston Community Ventures.
Our first investment supported a family-owned manufacturing business in Ohio that was approaching closure.
The second helped a rural medical transportation company.
Our third went to a bakery operated by two sisters.
They’d maintained profitability for fifteen years but had still been rejected by six banks.
Every investment committee followed Eleanor’s requirement.
Before discussing spreadsheets, executives met the people working inside the businesses.
Machine operators.
Receptionists.
Drivers.
Cooks.
Warehouse employees.
People who rarely appeared in corporate presentations, although their lives depended on decisions made in conference rooms.
Not every investment succeeded.
Some businesses couldn’t be rescued.
Others recovered and expanded.
Within three years, Halston Community Ventures had invested in eighty-seven businesses and protected more than twelve thousand jobs.
Richard rebuilt Mercer & Field and renamed it Field & Company.
Nina became chief operating officer.
