STREET TALK

A reporter from New York-based Forbes magazine made a special trip here in January just to make sure that the drop in oil prices hadn’t knocked any Dal-lasites’ names off Forbes’ annual list of the nation’s 400 wealthiest people.

Forbes visited Dallas three years ago when the national list was first being compiled. Jeff Block, one of the three Forbes reporters who do research for the list, thought it was time to take another look at the city.

“I found it was more stable than we thought,” Block says. “Oil prices have not hurt people like we anticipated. The lower prices might have hurt their cash flow, but the value of the oil in the ground hasn’t declined that drastically.”

Block, who is currently working on the fall 1985 list, says that the fall 1984 list ranked Dallas in second place-with 30 people worth $150 million or more-behind New York, which had 88. Los Angeles was third with 28, Chicago had 16 and Houston had 10. He says that after talking confidentially to many brokers, bankers, realtors and journalists here, he thinks that the new list will include most of the same Dallas names, in addition to a couple of new names from the real estate community.

He says that the hardest part of his job is keeping everything confidential. Block says he welcomes any tips and adds that some of his best tips have come via unmarked letters.



The end of March marks the dedication of the Patrick E. Haggerty Science Center on the University of Dallas campus. The domed building will house the departments of biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics. Frederick Seitz, president emeritus of Rockefeller University and a close friend of the Haggerty family, will give the dedicatory address on March 30 at 11:30 a.m. in the Maher Athletic Center.

In honor of the Science Center opening, the 1985 Eugene McDermott Lectures will be held March 28 through April 1 in the Lynch Auditorium. Call 721-5225 for lecture dates, times and reservations.