Bill Baxter Jr., Cutchogue economist who advised long-term investment, dies at 91

Economist Bill Baxter Jr. published one of the nation’s largest economic forecasting newsletters, consulting with working folk like turkey farmers and championing Warren Buffett decades before he became known, his family said.

"He was a long-term investor," said his son, Bill Baxter III of Stamford, Connecticut. "His economic advice was to buy something to own it for a number of years and to own quality."

Inflation, his chief focus, yielded his proudest career moments working in his father’s company, the Manhattan-based Baxter Investment Management, which had its printing presses in Mattituck, his son said.

He pushed gold as a hedge against the double-digit inflation in the 1970s, with his readers thanking him for saving them, his family said. He warned readers in August 1987 to sell their stocks, shortly before the markets crashed on Oct. 19, dubbed Black Monday, according to his son.

Baxter, who split each year between Cutchogue and Stuart, Florida, died July 4 at age 91.

Whether it was sports or work, he was focused and demanded the same from others, those who knew him said.

Baxter III recalled sailing with his father.

In one childhood sailing trip, Baxter III said, he trimmed the sail for hours, but when he bent to grab his sandwich at lunchtime, the sail lost its shape and flapped, upsetting his father: "He threw my sandwich overboard. It was typical. He didn’t allow for sloppiness."

Baxter Jr. was not always so focused.

When he got B grades in high school, his father, William Baxter Sr., took him for a ride one day — the teenager had no idea he was on a two-hour car trip that would end with him deposited at Canterbury School, a private boarding school in New Milford, Connecticut, Baxter III said.

"Before Canterbury, he would say he was kind of wandering through life," Baxter III said. "Canterbury comes down hard on students and had a high level of expectations."

Baxter obtained an economics degree at Colgate University in 1956, followed by a master of business administration from Columbia University’s Business School in 1957 and the family trade.

He grew the business by offering investment management services in response to readers’ demand, Baxter III said. He also deployed the "Turkey Tally" in his newsletters, a count of how many dinner birds were being purchased, as an arbiter of economic health, a practice started by Baxter Sr.

The advice in Baxter Jr.’s investment books, published more than 40 years ago, was ahead of the times, his family said. Well before the population migration to Texas, Florida and Arizona, he suggested buying land and utilities there, saying people preferred warmer climes, according to his son.

Just as much as he loved forecasting the economy, Baxter treasured being on the water, from Rhode Island to the Caribbean, those who knew him said. Most days, he’d be at work about 6:30 a.m. and leave to sail around 2 p.m., his family said. A veteran of scores of sailing races, he befriended some of the nation’s best competitive sailors, including those who raced in the America’s Cup, sailing comrades said. He was known for his many boats named Pirate and his skull and bones sail, they said.

At one point, he was the commodore of the Old Cove Yacht Club in New Suffolk and a board member who made sure younger generations learned to sail, said Bill Lehnert, who served with Baxter Jr. on the club’s board for 20 years.

"He was always willing to share, always willing to teach, always willing to mentor, never kept a secret to himself," Lehnert said.

Baxter loved the water so much that he put his water view from his cliffside Cutchogue home among the many chores listed on a yellow legal pad for his children.

"We would have to go over the cliff and cut the weeds down so they wouldn’t block his water view," his son said. "It was his way of making sure his kids understood hard work was important."

Besides his son, Baxter Jr. is also survived by his wife, Patricia; children, Kathy Enos, of Jensen Beach, Florida, Susie Miller, of Greenwich, Connecticut, and John Baxter, also of Greenwich; and eight grandchildren.

A liturgy of Christian burial was celebrated July 9 at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church in Mattituck, followed by burial at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Cutchogue.