Generous Retiree of the Week

By DAVID ELLIS/

EVERARD BIERER

The 84-year-old former Pan Am pilot and stock-market investor tried to get his fellow retirees to pony up $1 million to help save the struggling airline. When no one would chip in, Bierer wrote his own check for $400,000, which the company will use to buy pilot-training computers.

With reporting by DANIEL S. LEVY