Sixty years ago, a 27-year old U.S. Army officer stormed into the suite of the vice president of a Manhattan insurance company to complain about being snubbed by the firm’s personnel director.

The young soldier had served in World War II and still had “mud on his boots” from the Korean War. He was angry that Americans at home largely ignored the Korean War in which 38,000 soldiers died. He was searching for a career, weighing whether to stay in the military, go to work for the FBI, or put his law degree to use when he came upon the insurance company office on William Street and stepped inside to inquire about jobs. He was not pleased when the personnel director gave him little time and lots of negative attitude. So he decided to do something about it. He went to the lobby and looked up the name of that personnel director’s boss.