Californian Tim Schaefer, a legend in the municipal bond industry, is a posthumous inductee into The Bond Buyer's Muni Hall of Fame.
Schaefer, who
"He just made a major contribution to the industry," said Jay Goldstone, a special advisor to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria, who was among those who nominated Schaefer.
Schaefer was California's deputy treasurer for public finance in two administrations. He was
During more than five decades in public finance, Schaefer worked as a salesman on a trading desk, a banker at Chemical Bank and Bank of America, and as president of Fieldman Rolapp & Associates, a leading California financial advisory firm, before forming his own financial advisory firm, Magis Advisors.
Schaefer first joined then-state controller Chiang as a fiscal policy advisor. Schaefer followed him to the State Treasurer's Office, becoming deputy treasurer of public finance.
"Tim had a deep well of knowledge about public finance," Chiang said in January. "He was my first and only choice for deputy treasurer of public finance and an easy choice."
The people who nominated Schaefer for the Hall of Fame award, are well-known figures in the California muni industry including Goldstone; Stephen Heaney, who co-chaired Stifel's public finance division
Schaefer was a registered Democrat who resided in Sacramento. He moved there with his wife, Kathryn, when he took the job as fiscal policy advisor in the controller's office in 2014. Prior to that, he had lived in Los Angeles.
He was involved in some of the State Treasurer's Office's biggest public policy programs related to bonds.
They included California's
But working with the California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission, the treasurer's agency that provides education about public finance, was near and dear to his heart. Nicknamed "the professor" by many in the industry, Schaefer always made the time to explain how municipal bonds worked to people, be it colleagues, issuer clients or government officials.
Even though he left the treasurer's office in October, Schaefer had not intended to fully retire. He contracted pneumonia, and it ultimately took his life, according to his wife Kathryn.
"The timing was just stunning, coming so soon after his official retirement," Kathryn Schaefer said.
Dozens of people reached out to The Bond Buyer after Schaefer died to share how much working with him had meant to them. The
Schaefer responded to a query from David Dewshi, a senior consultant based in London, about a financial program that Dewshi believed could save the state of California money, and he did so while in the hospital recovering from surgery.
"I'd like it to be known (if it already wasn't) that this gentleman never stopped caring about the people he represented and served," Dewshi said. "He made me realize that there are still people who work in public service who remember they serve the people and not their own careers."
But what was really telling is that Schaefer contacted " me from his hospital bed when he was recovering from illness and an operation. An amazing gesture," Dewshi said.
"How many civil servants can you think of that would do such a thing?" Dewshi asked. "He got in touch with a British guy he'd only spoken to in a prior meeting to discuss an idea."
