Dennis G. Ciocca, a municipal industry veteran whose career as a public finance banker spanned nearly 50 years, lost his seven-year battle with prostate cancer on June 14. He was 76.
With more than four decades in public finance, Mr. Ciocca of Sonoma, Ca., most recently worked as a banker at Stern Brothers & Co. in its Sonoma office, for the past seven years.
He began his career in 1965 as a public finance banker at San Francisco-based Stone & Youngberg, and went on to work as a vice president and Western regional manager at the former E.F. Hutton, from 1979 to 1987.
He was later a partner at Sutter Securities of San Francisco, where he worked for 15 years.
Throughout his career Mr. Ciocca served municipal clients, such as the states of California, Nevada and Hawaii, and the cities of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Portland, Ore. He also had long-standing client relationships with issuers, such as the University of Nevada at Reno, and the city of Hawthorne, Calif., which spanned 40 years. He also maintained a variety of housing and water issuer clients, among others.
Mr. Ciocca was a 1962 graduate of Oregon State University with a bachelor’s degree in history, and later received his master’s of business administration degree from the University of Oregon in 1964.
He was a member of the San Francisco Bond Club and was a member of the California Redevelopment Authority Housing Finance Board from 2006 to 2010.
He spoke on public finance at the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.
He was revered by many in the industry who knew and worked with him over the years, according to his son, Andrew, who himself worked with his father at Sutter Securities and Stern Brothers for a combined 13 years.
“Dennis taught me much of what I know about the business and everything I know about being a gentleman,” said his former colleague Don Backstrom, a managing director and principal at San Francisco-based broker-dealer Backstrom McCarley Berry & Co. LLC, who worked with Mr. Ciocca on mutual financings over 25 years.
He enjoyed spending time with his family and friends and was active in the Catholic church. He was an avid U.S. history buff and spent time traveling to historic sites. He was especially dedicated to, Mary, his wife of 48 years; and enjoyed spending his life in the Bay area.
In addition to his wife, survivors includehis daughter, Catherine and her partner, Terry Ohm; sons, Andrew and Patrick; daughter in law, Jessica; and his dog Tyler.
Services will be held on June 28 at 10 a.m. at St. Leo’s Catholic Church in Sonoma, Ca.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the UCSF Foundation with the notation: “Prostate and Genitourinary Malignancies Research Fund in memory of Dennis Ciocca.” Checks can be mailed to: UCSF, P.O. Box 45339, San Francisco, Ca., 94145-0339.
