Terese Celine Payne
1946-2022
Mill Valley CA-A powerhouse in the board room and life, tiny and mighty she took the bull by the horns and ran!
Terese Celine Dicks was born in Terra Haute, Indiana, the second daughter to colonel James Harold Dicks and Anne Celine Dicks. She was the middle of six children. Her mother passed in the birth of her youngest brother. When James was sent to Korea as a battalion commander, the children were sheltered with family and church organizations. Reunited in Pueblo, Colorado after the Korean deployment, James met Geraldine Conner and united two families, 8 children total.
James was posted to Tooele Ordinance Depot, Utah and the whole family relocated; he retired to Salt Lake City, Utah. Terese attended Judge Memorial High School, graduating in 1964, and then attended the University of Utah. She began her work in the securities business at Dean Witter where two traders encouraged her to obtain her securities registration, unknown to the office manager. In 1972 she transferred to San Francisco with DW and then got recruited by Bear Stearns to be one of the first in the new West Coast office. It was here in 1973 that she met and fell in love with Robert Payne, marrying him in the late ’70s and her daughter Samantha was born in 1978 joining Robert’s two sons, Jonathan and Tony.
She quickly rose under the wing of Ace Greenberg, one of Bear Stearns’s most senior leaders and her mentor. An early large coup was landing Wells Fargos’ first index fund as the key trader in 1975. Her trajectory continued; becoming the first of two women to be partners at Bear in the late ’80s and running the SF office from 1990-95. She ran the SF office from then until she stepped down in 1995 after being diagnosed with Lupus.
This began her second stage in life, raising her daughter Samantha and setting off to see the world. As can be imagined, she stormed through this stage with the same enthusiasm and good humor that she had approached in her financial career. She embraced retirement and traveled often, with friends and with family, always different, sometimes the same, always returning to her beloved Nantucket and Hawaii. She ventured to Australia, New Zealand, Africa, Mauritius, Budapest, Turkey, China, Italy, France, Canada, Greece, Istanbul, Peru, and her favorites Scotland and Ireland. Terese loved to explore and experience new lands, new monuments, new cultures, and new cuisines but always, triumphantly loved to return home, to the bay with tales and pix to prove it!
She was involved in multiple organizations and philanthropic endeavors, including The Lupus Foundation and various local lupus funds, Catholic Charities, Mill Valley Film Festival, California Pacific Medical Center, and helping on the board of the Branson School.
She is survived by her siblings Paul, James, and Kathleen, her loving husband Robert of 44 years, her daughter Samantha and stepsons Jonathan and Tony, and her grandchildren, Beatrice, Stella, Anthony, Anders, Walker, and Hayden. As well as her many nieces and nephews, and grand nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers please send remembrances to either Lupus Foundation, Catholic Charities, or Water.org.
Published by The Salt Lake Tribune from Sep. 18 to Sep. 25, 2022.
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