Is this the tale of a computer tycoon or a rock 'n' roll star? Highlights from the life of a business mogul or the outline of a sensational pulp novel?
In the case of Jim Clark -- start-up artist extraordinaire, father of computer graphics, pioneer of Web surfing, self-appointed healer of the nation's ailing health-care system -- the answer is all of the above.

The story of any self-made multibillionaire is bound to have more than its share of drama, making startling twists and turns, negotiating deep troughs and scaling vertiginous heights. But if Clark's career has been a roller coaster, it's been an entirely different kind of ride. Rather than piloting the lead car, or even controlling the ride's machinery, Clark has generally been out in front of everyone building the track itself, determining where the damn thing is headed in the first place.

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But when Donald and Mildred Othmer died -- he in 1995, she in 1998 -- it turned out they were quite remarkable indeed. Polytechnic University, which once faced bankruptcy, unexpectedly found itself heir to $175 million. Planned Parenthood received $65 million. All told, the couple bequeathed $340 million to several perennially cash-strapped Brooklyn institutions.

Few who knew the Othmers had any idea of their enormous wealth, which totaled some $750 million. But the couple's hometown -- Omaha, Neb. -- offered a clue. Omaha, as any investor knows, is the headquarters of Warren Buffett, the greatest stock market investor of modern times. He also happened to have been an old friend of the Othmers. After investing $25,000 each in a Buffett-led investment partnership in the early 1960s, in 1970 the couple received thousands of shares of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., Buffett's insurance and investment holding company, at $42 a share. By the time Donald Othmer died in 1995, the stock had soared to $30,000 a share. Too bad for Brooklyn he didn't live a few years longer -- Berkshire Hathaway currently trades at an astonishing $68,000 a share.

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