We are told we should always speak well of the dead. But wouldn’t that sometimes be hypocrisy? The writer did not hesitate to criticize [American Woolen Co. head] William M. Wood during his life and now feels that his tragic death, by suicide, contains a lesson for at least a few of America’s large employers. When infirmity overtook him, he [attempted] works of repentance, but it was too late.... The writer knows that too many men of vast affairs are blind to the realities, the worthwhile things of life, and do not acquire a correct perspective until they feel themselves slipping toward the grave.
- B.C. Forbes
http://thoughts.forbes.com/thoughts/b-c-forbes