Wall St says goodbye to a towering figure

New York

JAMES B Lee Jr, a towering figure on Wall Street, was remembered at his funeral mass on Monday as a father, a friend and an investment banker possessed of boundless energy, sprawling interests and a crackling wit, qualities that made him one of the most successful and beloved figures in his industry.

The service, in St Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown Manhattan, was just blocks from where Mr Lee worked as vice-chairman of JPMorgan Chase. There, he shaped corporate America, and the nation's biggest bank, through a career that established him as perhaps the pre-eminent deal maker of his generation.