Don Backstrom, co-founder of San Francisco-based broker-dealer and municipal advisory firm Backstrom McCarley Berry & Co, has died from cancer. He was 84.
The veteran investment banker and municipal advisor co-founded the firm that carries his name with Vincent McCarley and Leonard Berry on his 61st birthday, June 2, 2002. He worked full-time as managing director and principal for the firm in Los Angeles through July 31, 2025 and continued part-time as managing director the last six months of his life, McCarley said.
Like his siblings, Backstrom's career path was a testament to the dedication to public service his parents, Julia and Walter Backstrom, instilled in their 11 children, said Kellye Backstrom, his daughter.
"I always tried to follow the Backstrom boys lead," she said. "All of them had some type of a public service job."
Uncle Walter "Snap" helped found the sanitation workers union that eventually grew into SEIU 721, which represents close to 100,000 public service workers, she said. "Uncle Jim was an educator."
"They were taught you have to give back," she said. "You can't live in the community and not be part of it. You have to show you aren't just taking something. You have to do something."
Backstrom spent the last 22 years of his career working as an investment banker and municipal advisor for a long list of issuers including the State of California, University of California Regents, Los Angeles Department of Education, Los Angeles and San Diego counties, cities of Inglewood, Long Beach and Los Angeles, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
But before he crossed over to the private side, he spent 13 years working for state government, including six years as a deputy treasurer during State Treasurer Jesse Unruh's tenure, from 1984 to 1990. During the six prior to that, he was division chief for the Department of Veteran Affairs home loan division.
The Backstroms developed a connection to the well-known Los Angeles political family, the Hahns, after his parents canvassed for Kenneth Hahn during his first run for office. Hahn was a county supervisor for 40 years from 1952-1992 and on the City Council from 1947-1952. The county Hall of Administration carries Hahn's name. His daughter Janice Hahn, who is currently a county supervisor, previously served as a congresswoman, on the Los Angeles City Council and was an investment banker.
"Don Backstrom understood that public finance is ultimately about serving people," County Supervisor Janice Hahn said. "Whether he was working for the State of California or advising local governments, Don's commitment to careful, responsible financing made it possible for us to build schools, hospitals, and our public transit system here in LA County. His work was often behind the scenes, done quietly and without fanfare, but the impact he made is going to last generations."
Kellye Backstrom said her father was a man of few words. She joked that she was lucky to get four or five out of him a year.
But like the popular E.F. Hutton commercial from the 1980s – when E.F. Hutton speaks, people listen – "That was my Dad. When he spoke, people listened," she said.
Colleagues and friends described Backstrom as a man of integrity with a certain gravitas, a charismatic presence and a calming influence.
Though a man of few words, he left a strong impression on people. He always remembered the people he worked with and they remembered him, said McCarley, the firm's chief executive officer.
"He liked people and showed them respect, and they liked and respected him in return," McCarley said. "When we would visit Sacramento on business, people were always stopping to speak with him."
Backstrom was so well-connected and respected from all of his years of public service and work as an investment banker, that people treated him like he was a mayor, said his daughter, who is an only child.
When Backstrom worked in Sacramento, he would take his daughter with him to dinners. She is now awed that when she was in second or third grade, she was able to dine with former Gov. Jerry Brown, during his first two-term stint in office from 1975 to 1983, and with '70s pop singer Linda Ronstadt.
One of the programs, of which Backstrom was most proud, was his work with the CalVet program, said Peter Wong, a vice president with the firm.
The program was designed to issue home loans to military veterans, Wong said, but its focus was on World War II veterans and it had been dormant for some time, when Unruh hired Backstrom to revitalize the program, because he had a strong record of developing programs in Los Angeles as a commercial banker, he said.
"Congress had extended the program to Vietnam vets," Wong said. "His job was to revamp the program. He created a whole new program from scratch."
He was known as a problem solver and created or revamped a lot of programs, Wong said.
Backstrom "always took the high road," McCarley said. "Investment banking can be somewhat cutthroat at times. He always felt there was enough on the table or everyone; and he was always helpful to others. Even if they were competitors."
McCarley and Backstrom were first introduced by a mutual acquaintance, "who talked about Don's integrity in this business and thought he was someone I should get to know," McCarley said.
They eventually met and ended up working together at the same small firm in Baltimore.
"The firm was doing some innovative things, but having some issues," McCarley said. "Don, Leonard and I discussed our options: we could stay with that firm, move to a bigger firm or take a leap of faith and start our own firm."
When they decided to launch their firm, it helped, McCarley said, that Don had some key clients, and he was "Mister L.A., because he and his family were such a part of Los Angeles."
Backstrom didn't speak often of his military service, but he served as a military police officer during the Vietnam War in Alaska and Phoenix, and later in Vietnam, Germany and Bangkok, his daughter said.
"He has his original inspection papers," she said. "He always got high marks on the inspections he had to go through."
He carried a scar on his arm from breaking up a fight when some young soldiers got drunk and someone stabbed him in the arm, she said.
Born on June 4, 1941 in Los Angeles, he was the ninth child out of eleven brothers and sisters. He was preceded in death by his parents and three brothers, Lawrence Wilson, Walter "Snap", and James Earl "Jim" Backstrom (Maedeen) and four sisters, Delores, Lucille, Sharon, and Marion.
He is survived by: his wife of 52 years, Jacquelyn Lazell Backstrom, daughter Kellye Dion Backstrom (Cory). Brothers Warner
Bruce Backstrom (Loretta) and Vernell Backstrom; a host of nieces, nephews, extended family, and dear friends.
A viewing will be Thursday from 4:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel, 27501 S. Western Ave., Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
A memorial service will be held Feb. 27 from 10:30 a.m. to noon at New Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church, 402 E. Segundo Blvd., Los Angeles. Gravesite service will follow the memorial service and be held at Green Hills Mortuary and Memorial Chapel. A repast will be held that day at 2:30 p.m. at Elks Lodge No. 966, 1748 Cumbre Drive in San Pedro.
