Morgan Stark

Morgan Babcock Stark was born on June 14, 1939, in New York to Richard Salisbury Stark and the former Carolin Babcock. His father was a film and television actor and his mother won the U.S. Open women’s doubles championship in 1936. Stark earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from New York University and served 3 ½ years as a U.S. Marine. He joined Chase Manhattan Bank’s municipal finance department in 1963 before a promotion to manager of the government dealership and proprietary-trading desk in 1975. Four years later, Stark moved to Chemical Bank as deputy head of its Treasury department and held various management roles in the New York-based lender’s capital-markets, private-banking and securities units. In 1993, Stark became a managing director at Granite Capital International Group, where he was responsible for trading, asset raising and client services. He and Strauss left Granite in July 1995 to join Peter A Cohen as partners at Ramius. He ran the firm along with its founder and chairman, Peter A. Cohen, who is now Cowen CEO, and Thomas W. Strauss, a managing member who is currently Ramius chairman and vice chairman of the parent company. In addition to his wife, the former Sidney Stires, his survivors include their sons Nicholas and Mason.