Stock Affairs to Remember

They say you never forget your first love affair. Fund managers, however, are a different breed. They never forget their first stock affair.

Take Robert Millen, portfolio manager of the $2.4 billion Jensen fund (JENSX), for example. He remembers the exact day he became smitten with shares of General Electric(GE Quote). The year was 1969, and Millen was a senior in college applying for a slot in GE's management training program when he literally "saw the light."

"As part of the interview process, they took me to a light bulb factory outside Cleveland, and I remember being tremendously impressed with the manufacturing process and high quality of people there," recounts Millen. "I guess you could say a light bulb went off in my head."

Millen says he bought the stock but never took the job. Instead, he took a higher-paying offer from automaker Ford(F Quote) before moving into banking and then finally into the mutual fund business. ...