Longtime associates in Colorado’s municipal bond business remember Bruce C. Newman as a great storyteller who played an important role in the region’s development.
Newman died Nov. 18 in Denver. He was 87.
“He was an inspirational type of leader, who not only spotted talent, but fostered it and shared not only his knowledge but his interests,” recalls Jerry Peterson of the law firm Butler Snow. “Newman was a garrulous man who could regale you endlessly with amusing tales, but a man who also wanted to hear your story whether you were a cab driver or Ivy Leaguer.”
Born in Granada, Colorado, in 1933, Newman graduated from Dartmouth College in 1955 with a degree in mathematics. He joined the U.S. Air Force and flew both B-25s and C-47s, ultimately serving in an Air/Sea Rescue Squadron based in San Bernardino, California.
In 1959, Newman joined Boettcher and Company, a leading municipal bond firm in Denver, where he was required to learn shorthand and typing to be hired as an underwriter.
“Most of his underwriting experience in those early days was in New Mexico, which proved to be a ‘Wild West’ experience, the tales of which could only be done justice by one such as Bruce Newman,” Peterson recalled.
After a decade at Boettcher, Newman and a partner started a firm called Resource Development Corp., which provided modular housing for Texans during the years of President Lyndon Johnson's Great Society program.
“Apparently, hurricanes took care of the modular housing and the fledgling business, both,” Peterson said. “But the bond business kept calling and Newman next joined a regional bond firm, Gerwin and Company, as vice president, underwriting primarily general obligation and revenue bond issues in a multi-state region.”
In 1979, Gerwin and Company underwent a corporate split and Newman founded Newman and Associates, Inc., a privately held investment banking firm with four additional partners and capital of just $450,000.
Newman and Associates financed hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and special districts before ultimately making its mark in multifamily rental housing bond underwriting.
After Newman’s retirement, Newman and Associates became part of GMAC Commercial Mortgage and later became part of Citi Community Capital, Citibank's affordable housing unit that for the past 10 years has been the country's largest provider of debt financing of affordable multifamily rental housing.
Son Gregory Bruce Newman preceded his father in death.
Newman’s wife of 67 years, Georgia Newman, is among his survivors, who include daughter Denise Stephens and her husband Bill Stephens; granddaughters Carol Mele, Rebecca Stephens, and Sarah Stephens; and grandson Joshua Newman.
Georgia Newman said her husband would have wanted memorials in his name to go to food banks and charities that feed the needy.
