William Schreyer | Merrill Lynch chief, 83

William Schreyer, 83, whose 45 years at Merrill Lynch & Co. culminated in an eight-year stint as chairman and chief executive officer, including the market crash of October 1987, died Saturday at his home in Princeton.

Mr. Schreyer became president of Merrill in 1982 and served as chairman and CEO from 1985 to 1993. He helped change the firm from "primarily a retail brokerage house to an integrated global investment bank," said Jim Wiggins, who headed corporate communications throughout Mr. Schreyer's tenure as CEO. His years atop Merrill Lynch were troubled. He succeeded Roger Birk as CEO, then as chairman, as part of what Time magazine called an "unexpected shake-up" fueled by a $42 million loss in 1983's fourth quarter.

Mr. Schreyer had led a group, called the Schreyer Working Team, that studied the company's problems. One of its findings, according to Time: The firm was trying to serve too many different types of customers. Mr. Schreyer embarked on a cost restructuring that he called "Merristroika," a takeoff on then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of national economic restructuring called perestroika.

An unexpected challenge came Oct. 19, 1987 - Black Monday - when global markets crashed. Mr. Schreyer and the firm won plaudits for their confident reaction, which included a rapid-response advertising campaign. "At Merrill Lynch, we're still bullish on America," Mr. Schreyer said in a TV commercial that ran one day after the crash, reviving an ad slogan from the 1970s.

William Allen Schreyer was born in Williamsport, Pa., according to a profile written for the Smeal College of Business at Pennsylvania State University. He graduated from Penn State in 1948 with a degree in commerce and finance. The Schreyers eventually became financial benefactors to the school, endowing a new honors college named after them. Mr. Schreyer served on Penn State's board of trustees, including two terms as president. - Bloomberg News