91868

Perfect Business Partner

To know Douglas Stone was to know his distinctive brand of humor. "Cynical and dry" his son Zachary called it. "When he got going, everyone would be in tears." His business partner, Tad Parker, recalled the day that Mr. Stone, after dealing with some prickly personnel issue, sat down, looked up at the ceiling and stretched his arms out. "Can you feel the love?" he said, adding: "Human resources isn't my forte. Let's go have a toddy."

Mr. Parker and Mr. Stone, 54, owned Odyssey Press, in Dover, N.H., and to Mr. Parker it was "a professional marriage made in heaven." Mr. Stone, he said, was a master at sniffing out problems that might spell trouble later.

Mr. Stone was divorced, but stayed connected with Zachary, who lived in California with his mother. Theirs "was better than a lot of father-son relationships; he was one of my best friends," said Zachary, who flew East every summer. "I worked in his printshop from the time I was tall enough to stand on a skid."

Mr. Stone flew to California often, and was on hand to watch his son break two minutes in the 800-meter run — "one of the best things I got to share with him," Zachary said.

Although Mr. Stone's trip, on Flight 11, was for business, he also planned to help Zachary settle in at U.C.L.A. for his freshman year.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on December 2, 2001.