Aug. 16, 2011

Walter Oechsle ’57 is recognized as a premier international investment manager. He’s the retired managing general partner of Oechsle International Advisors, headquartered in Boston. Prior to forming the firm in 1986, Oechsle was president and chief investment officer of Putnam International Advisors. Previously he was associated with Arnhold and S. Bleichroeder in New York. For five years, Oechsle wrote “Overseas Commentary,” a column on international investing, for Forbes magazine.

A native of Germany, Oechsle earned an A.B. degree with a major in history at Lafayette. He pursued graduate study in philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and earned an MBA in finance from New York University. His wife, Christa Oechsle, is a graduate of Hofstra University and taught foreign languages in U.S. public schools for a number of years.

In 1995, Walter Oechsle received the George Washington Kidd, Class of 1836, Award, which is presented by the Alumni Association to alumni who have achieved distinction in their careers. In 1997, the Oechsles were inducted into Lafayette’s Société d’Honneur, which recognizes exceptional lifetime generosity to the College.

Lafayette’s new center for global education was made possible by support from the Oechsles. In addition to establishing the Oechsle Center for Global Education, they provided a gift that enabled the College to strengthen its programs in psychology and neuroscience, including a major transformation of Alumni Memorial Gymnasium to provide outstanding facilities for these programs. Oechsle Hall, with teaching laboratories, classrooms, faculty research laboratories, student research laboratories, and faculty offices, opened in August 2002

The Oechsles also gave money to establish an endowed scholarship fund that benefits international students, with preference in making awards from that fund given to students in Eastern Europe.