Richard H. 'Dick' Spurzem

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Spurzem, Richard H. "Dick" FORMER PIPER JAFFRAY PARTNER/EXECUTIVE DIES AT AGE OF 90. Richard H. ("Dick) Spurzem, died on July 12, 2017 at the age of 90 from throat cancer at his beachfront house on the Balboa Peninsula in Newport Beach, CA. He was born in 1926 at Eitel Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Mary Hensler Spurzem and Dr. Raymond J. Spurzem. He is survived by his son Richard T. Spurzem of Charlottesville, VA, his daughter Anne H. Spurzem of Greenwich, CT, his former step-daughter Lindsay Fairfield Herbert of Minnetonka, MN, his sister Susan S. Cuse of Pacific Palisades, CA, his identical twin brother Dr. Robert R. Spurzem of Indian Wells, CA, his grandson Harrison A. Spurzem, his granddaughter Caroline V. Spurzem, and six nephews. He was preceded in death by a daughter Catherine I. Spurzem, who was killed in a car accident in 1981 at the age of 24 while pursuing a joint JD/MBA degree at the University of Virginia. He is also survived by Frances O'Brien, his long-time companion and caregiver. Mr. Spurzem grew up on Rice Street (on the banks of the Mississippi) in Anoka, MN where his father practiced medicine for over 50 years. In Anoka, he was an industrious boy selling magazine subscriptions, delivering the newspaper, and working at the Babcock Hardware Store. He would tell his grandchildren that he would work a full week (and then some) for only $15. In 1944, both he and his twin brother entered medical school at the University of Minnesota. He found out that medicine was not for him, and in 1948, he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.S. degree in Chemistry. At the U of M, he was a member of the Chi Psi fraternity, an organization that he supported throughout his life. After a very brief stint "marking the board" (posting stock prices in caulk on a board after getting them off the wire) at the Minneapolis branch of Paine Webber, he was hired by Palmer Jaffray at Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood (PJH) as a stock broker trainee. His pay was a mere $80 per month. He knew all three original PJ&H partners. In 1952, he enlisted in the Navy. He did boot camp at Great Lakes and then attended Yeoman's School in Bainbridge, MD. As the top student in his class, he was given his choice of assignments and choose to go to the Pentagon. There, he worked for the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In the afternoons and evenings, he worked for a Johnston, Lemmon, & Co., a Washington DC stock brokerage, cold calling people who had sent in responses to newspaper ads. He also was trading stock for himself and the naval brass. In 1953, he married Doris Queener in her hometown of Jacksboro, TN. He had met Doris in Minneapolis at the wedding of fellow Piper Jaffray broker Drew Simonson. In 1954, he and his new bride returned to Minneapolis and he rejoined Piper, Jaffray. In 1957, he moved to Rochester, MN and opened an office there for Piper. This office was only the fifth branch office in the history of PJH and was the start of a rapid expansion for the firm in the fifties and sixties. He was especially proud that he hired and trained Maxine Jacobs, the first women registered representative in the history of Piper, Jaffray. He instituted a commission split arrangement with Ms. Jacobs whereby she shared in all his business in Rochester. He and Doris lived at 835 8th Ave. South on "Pill Hill" in Rochester. He was a member of the Rotary Club of Rochester and the Rochester Golf & Country Club. In 1960, at the age of 34, Mr. Spurzem was named the youngest partner in the history of Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood. He soon joined Piper's Directing Partners Committee and held the firm's seat on the American Stock Exchange. In 1966, he was recalled to Minneapolis from Rochester. Stuart Olson, one of the many young brokers that Spurzem trained and mentored, became the Branch Manager of the Rochester office of Piper when Spurzem left. Upon returning to Minneapolis in 1966, he bought the Steiner-Dayton mansion at 1720 West Franklin Ave. from the Dayton family (the founders of Target Stores), after the death of Mrs. George Nelson Dayton, the grandmother of the current Governor of Minnesota, for $85,000. When he and Doris had left Minneapolis nine years before, they had owned a small house on Girard Ave. only a few blocks away. After PJH incorporated in August 1969, he was the third largest shareholder owning 8.7% of the company and was named a Senior Vice President. PJH was one of the first New York Stock Exchange members to offer its stock to the public when it went public in July 1971, only one month after Merrill Lynch did so. Spurzem presciently sold a good chuck of his stock in the offering at $19 per share, as Piper stock did not reach those levels again for a decade or more. Though Piper Jaffray was primarily a retail brokerage house, Spurzem did some investment banking and corporate finance for the firm. He advised Schaper Manufacturing on its sale to a subsidiary of Bethlehem Steel. He advised his college friend Paul Burke on the sale of his insurance business to Alexander and Alexander. He served on the boards of nine public companies: Piper, Jaffray & Hopwood, Inc., Larson Boats, Century Boats, Schaper Manufacturing (maker of the Cootie toys), Cornelius (maker of fountain drink machines), Cirtech (circuit board company), Paul Burke & Associates, and Kallestad Laboratories. But, at his core, he was a stockbroker making money for his customers. He was always either the #1 or #2 producer for Piper. In the 1960's he had sold so much of The One William Fund for Lehman Brothers that he was invited to Bobby Lehman's townhouse in New York to see Lehman's art collection which later became a wing at the Metropolitan Museum. With Sumner Young and Earl Geiger, he orchestrated the leveraged buyout of Larson Industries in 1972 from Wilson Sporting Goods, a Pepsi company. Spurzem became Vice Chairman of Larson. The group sold off the Larson divisions that manufactured Northland hockey sticks and skis, Brinktun pool and ping pong tables, and Rolite travel trailers to concentrate on Larson and Glaspar boats. When the boat industry was decimated by the gas crisis of the mid-1970’s, Larson went into bankruptcy and years later ended up as part of Irwin Jacobs’ boat empire. Spurzem was also an investor with former Larson boat executive Al Hegg in the purchase of Century Boats of Manistee, MI. After his divorce from Doris, he moved into a high-rise bachelor pad decorated by Larry Mork at the Towers in Downtown Minneapolis. In 1972, he married Marcia Fairfield and moved to 2750 Woolsey Lane in Deephaven which had channel access to Lake Minnetonka. Being in the boat industry, he had an ever-changing assortment of power boats including a 20’ Cigarette speed boat and a 47’ Botel houseboat which he and his family enjoyed using for waterskiing and entertaining. In Minneapolis, he was a member of the Minneapolis Club and the Lafayette Country Club. In 1976, Spurzem achieved his goal of retiring before turning 50 and he left Piper, having spent almost thirty years there. With Doris having moved to Charlottesville, Virginia with Richard and Anne, he decided to move to Southern California in 1978 and join his brother and sister in Orange County. He bought a run-down house on the sand in Newport Beach and tore it down. He served as his own general contractor in the building of his new house and was on the job with a tool belt every day for over a year. The building of his house gave him great pride to the day he died. Upon retirement, he continued as a stock investor and continued to handle the stock accounts of family and close friends. He prided himself on being one of the last true stock pickers. He was the quintessential "buy and hold" investor. He had nerves of steel, so a stock could drop 90% in value and he would ride it all the way down, and inevitably ride it all the way up to new highs. He watched the ticker tape go across his TV screen on CNBC all day, every day until the day he died. Up until the age of 88, he was a poster child of good health and fitness, having never had an operation (since the removal of his tonsils as a child) or having never been to a hospital. He worked out at least every other day for decades. He was the inspiration for the younger guys at the body-building gym he went to. He was fanatical about what he ate, having once told his grandchildren that ?carbs are for losers.? He also liked telling people that he weighed the same amount as he did when he wrestled in high school. His name is still on the wall of the fitness room at the Minneapolis Club recognizing his fitness achievements. He was a fighter and gave cancer a valiant fight. He was an avid hunter and fisherman. In addition to hunting and fishing throughout Minnesota and the Dakotas, he went on safaris to Kenya, South Africa, and the Central African Republic. He went to British Columbia to hunt elk and mountain goats and Alaska to shoot Kodiak bears. He went to Argentina and Mexico dove hunting. His hunting buddies said he was a helluva shot. He traded and collected guns and watches and loved traveling every year to the Las Vegas and Tulsa gun shows. His collection of Belgium-made Browning Superposed shotguns was one of the best ever assembled and was featured in the authoritative book on Browning shotguns. Memorial gifts may be made to the Mary Hensler Spurzem Scholarship I at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing or the Catherine I. Spurzem Scholarship at the University of Virginia Law School.

Published on October 18, 2017