Sidney Weinberg | Goldman director, 87

Sidney J. Weinberg Jr., 87, a senior director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the Wall Street firm once led by his father and his younger brother, has died.

Mr. Weinberg, known as Jim, died Oct. 4 of prostate cancer, according to a memo to employees from company executives. He "maintained his office at the firm and his influence upon our people until his death," it said. He died at his home in Marion, Mass.

Although Mr. Weinberg was affiliated with Goldman Sachs for 45 years, he played a less prominent role at the firm than his late father, Sidney J. Weinberg, who was chief executive officer from 1939 to 1969, or his late brother, John L. Weinberg, who ran it from 1976 to 1990.

He treasured his privacy and argued successfully at a 1986 partners' meeting against taking the firm public, according to the book Goldman Sachs: The Culture of Success, by Lisa Endlich.

"He would feel uncomfortable reading about partners in the newspapers," Endlich wrote.

Goldman Sachs did go public in 1999, later than many of its U.S. competitors, and 11 years after Mr. Weinberg retired from a full-time role at the company.

Sidney James Weinberg Jr. was born in Scarsdale, N.Y., on March 27, 1923. He served in the Philippines as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army during World War II.

He was a vice president of the textile division at Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corp., now Owens Corning Inc., before joining Goldman Sachs' investment-banking department in 1965.

"His whole reputation in the business world was as a person of honesty and integrity," said Thomas S. Murphy, the former chairman and chief executive officer of Capital Cities/ABC Inc., who was a close friend of Mr. Weinberg's since they attended Harvard Business School together. - Bloomberg News