Another obituary; Dick died a week ago.  The other obits I’ve seen about Dick are accurate but lack the personal elements.

I knew Dick when I helped start the Marketing Research department at the Bank of America and then started a national organization of my fellow bank marketing officers. 

When I started my new job at the Bank of California, I went next door to let my friend, Dick, at Wells Fargo know about it.  There were two other marketing men in his office.  That was the meeting that created the future MasterCard.

Dick and I saw each other regularly for the next three years.  Later, when he was president of Bank of America I phoned him to get his help on a project of mine.  I wanted to create an index of the weighted major five global currencies to be used as a standard international currency for internal use in reporting financial statements for multinational corporations.  Dick remembered me after two decades.  He said he was getting rid of his international currency department and couldn’t help.

Dick was a genius exemplified by his purchase of Security Pacific National Bank. He knew, as I did, that all big organizations had internal politics that are very damaging to management.  He picked a top executive at Security and promised him a raise of $5 million to tell him who was productive at Security and who wasn’t.  After he bought and merged the banks he fired the losers and put his friend on the newly merged Board of Directors.

I saw Dick often, after he retired, at the symphony.  He liked symphonic music and was a big financial supporter.

Dick was a very smart man, with a great sense of humor and a warmth that I can never forget.