A relaxed Lloyd Blankfein joked about leaving Goldman Sachs Wednesday, saying that his position as CEO is a tough job to leave', adding that he expected to either stay at the firm 'forever', or 'die at my desk'.
But all joking aside, there was one former Goldman leader who did practically die at his desk. In 1976, after putting in a full day at the firm, lead partner Gus Levy attended a meeting of the Commission of the Port Authority of New York. During the meeting, Levy suffered a stroke and died a few days later.
And what about 'Cy' Lewis, the guy who ran Bear Stearns for almost 30 years until 1978. During the evening of his retirement party, held at the Harmonie Club in New York, Lewis suffered a mild stroke while unwrapping a gold Piaget retirement watch, a gift from his partners. He died two days later.
Then there's the case of McDonalds CEO Jim Cantalupo, who died of a heart attack in 2004, during a convention of McDonalds' franchisees.
Finally, we have Ken Lay, the former CEO of Enron. Lay died of a heart attack in July 2006, soon after being found guilty of fraud and other charges in connection with his tenure at the failed energy giant. He was just weeks away from being sentenced, and faced up to 30 years in prison.
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