Death Of Robert Gordon: 'College Dropout Made Name As Tax Maven'

Wall Street Journal, College Dropout Made Name As Tax Maven:

Robert N. Gordon, a college dropout, became one of the most-quoted U.S. experts on stock-market trends and tax-efficient investing.

“To make a move solely for tax purposes is silly, but to ignore taxes when investing is equally as foolhardy,” he told The Wall Street Journal a year ago. He was quoted in the Journal more than 100 times in the past 35 years, most recently in November.

Mr. Gordon, who was founder and president of New York-based Twenty-First Securities Corp. and whose bedtime reading included the tax code, died Dec. 14 at home in Manhattan. He was 66 and had been under treatment for lung cancer.

“He would exploit inefficiencies or errors or inconsistencies in the tax code wherever he found them,” said Robert Willens, an accounting and tax adviser. “He was the best I’d ever seen at that.” His strategies survived “withering scrutiny” from tax authorities, Mr. Willens said. ...

He is survived by two children and his sister, Wendy Gordon, a law professor at Boston University.

New York Times Obituary