After a turbulent ride, investor ready to get back on Delta

<p>A longtime buy-and-hold investor has no qualms about getting back on board Delta Air Lines Inc. stock, even after watching millions of dollars in gains evaporate amid the company's recent bankruptcy.</p><p>Carl Nourse, 85, an auto dealership owner from suburban Worthington, asked to be the first outsider to buy stock when shares of the reorganized airline began trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.</p><p>"There really is no bigger fan of this company than Mr. Nourse, and his loyalty has been astounding," said Neil Russell, director of investor relations for Atlanta-based Delta.</p><p>Nourse, who said his more than 60-year relationship with the airline has at times been "almost a love affair," was the company's largest individual investor, with more than 1 million shares before Delta's bankruptcy filing in 2005.</p><p>He started in 1946, when Delta's stock traded at $1.30. Nourse, living in Cincinnati at the time, came away impressed after he happened to meet Delta founder C. E. Woolman at the airport. So, he initially bought $20,000 worth of shares with bonus money he'd earned from his service as a Navy pilot, and for years he would reinvest his dividends to buy more stock.</p><p>As the airline industry took off and Delta became a major name in international air travel, Nourse's investment grew, eventually making him a multimillionaire, at least on paper. He held on through the stock's ups and downs and didn't sell until Delta went into bankruptcy 19 months ago. He got just 37 cents per share.</p><p>When the airline emerged from Chapter 11 on Monday, its previous shares were canceled.</p><p>Nourse said he felt no resentment and decided he wanted in on the ground floor of the new Delta stock after learning that CEO Gerald Grinstein vowed that if any money or stock awards resulted from the exit from bankruptcy, they would be put into a scholarship fund for Delta employees and their families.</p><p>Nourse said it reminded him of the way the company's founder valued his people.</p><p>"I just about cried," Nourse said. "That was Woolman all over again."</p><p>Delta's reissued shares opened Thursday at $21.75, though by early afternoon they had fallen to $20.75.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1cdca70)</p>