Samuel H. Trowe, a public finance banker, died last Thursday. Mr. Trowe had recently been diagnosed with Lyme disease, which had severely impacted his muscle control, and he died in his sleep of a heart attack. He was 63.
"Sam was always upbeat and possessed a positive attitude and a creative outlook on how to help his clients," said Frank Fairman, head of public finance services at Piper Jaffray & Co., where Mr. Trowe last worked. "He will be missed by all his colleagues at Piper Jaffray."
Mr. Trowe worked for the past two and a half years at Piper Jaffray in New York serving issuers in New York, New Jersey, and around the Northeast.
"Sam was a gentleman and worked well in partnership with others in our group," said Piper Jaffray managing director Bill Henderson.
Mr. Trowe had more than 30 years of securities industry experience, and he worked at a number of different firms, including Loeb Rhodes, Matthews & Wright, Glickenhaus, and Raymond James & Associates Inc. He was an expert in refunding, and a biography forwarded by Piper Jaffray said he has been credited with creating the first model for advanced refundings still used by many municipal finance professionals.
Mr. Trowe completed a wide variety of financings for improvement authorities, water and sewer systems, general obligation bond issues, hospitals, correctional facilities, and educational facilities.
"Sam was always ready with a smile and a joke, and had the enthusiasm and energy of a man half his age, and was very passionate about the public finance business," said Peter Delahunt, senior vice president and national sales manager for the municipal bond department at Raymond James. "He was a pleasure to work with."
Mr. Trowe also was involved in 1987 in creating and building First American Municipals Inc., where he worked for more than a decade. In the late 1990s, Mr. Trowe left the municipal business for several years to work on an Internet start-up company, Intralinks, that he later sold.
Born in 1944, Mr. Trowe grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He served in the Air Force after high school, and he received a bachelor's degree in finance from Baruch College.
Mr. Trowe also studied engineering at the New York Institute of Technology. Prior to joining the municipal bond business, he worked as an engineer for the lunar module program and on the Apollo missions. Mr. Trowe's official biography for Piper Jaffray notes that he received an achievement award from National Aeronautics and Space Administration and that his name is inscribed on a plaque that sits on the moon with Apollo 11.
He is survived by his wife Lucia, daughter Jennifer, son Paul, and two grandchildren, Nicholas and Michael.
Mr. Trowe was a licensed pilot who had a lifelong passion for flying.
"Sam said to me that he realized every day you're alive is a gift," Delahunt said. "He was always so passionate about life."
The funeral mass was held Monday at St. Patrick's Church in Huntington, N.Y. Arrangements were made by M.A. Connell Funeral Home in Huntington Station, N.Y.
