One day into his job at Goldman Sachs, Alfred Feld found his name on a list of employees the firm had targeted for layoffs.

Then fate, and a supportive boss, intervened.

Eighty years later, Mr. Feld is still at it at Goldman.

'I came so close to being fired after one day,' Mr. Feld, 98 years old, said Wednesday. 'I'm glad that didn't happen.'

Generations of Goldman colleagues are happy he stuck it out, too.

Goldman honored its longest-serving employee this week with a celebration that featured kind words from some of Mr. Feld colleagues over the years, including the firm's chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein.

Speaking during a town hall meeting for the firm's private wealth-management business, where Mr. Feld has spent a lifetime advising clients on their personal finances, Mr. Blankfein paid tribute to a career that has lived through numerous panics, crises and recessions that most Wall Street denizens have only read about.

Mr. Feld spent most of his Goldman career in New York before moving to Florida. While he no longer has his own client list, he remains an ambassador for the wealth-management arm and willingadviser and mentor to colleagues who may be less than a third his age.

'Wall Street has always been attractive to young people,' Mr. Blankfein said during his remarks at the town hall, which was held in the auditorium of Goldman's downtown New York headquarters.

Looming above Mr. Blankfein was Mr. Feld, who joined the tribute via videoconference from the firm's Palm Beach, Florida, office. But, Mr. Blankfein added, 'one thing you can't substitute is judgment and experience, and a sense of history.'

Few financial advisers have ever accumulated as much as Mr. Feld, who began his career at Goldman in 1933 -- when, Mr. Blankfein noted, the nation's unemployment rate stood at 25%.

'What can I say?' he said. 'Keep it up. You're just starting to get it right.

'Keep improving and one day, son, this will all be yours.'