His remarkable investment banking career started in 1946 with R.L. Day followed by Tucker Anthony. He opened Keefe, Bruyette and Woods in 1962 with only eight employees and $50,000 in capital, growing it to 180 employees and $83 million in 1989 when he left to start Keefe Managers, Inc., a bank equities investment firm. He was a consultant to bank managements, an investment banker (holding the record number of bank mergers) and a commentator to the press, regulators and legislators. He received the Bancroft Prize of outstanding orator of the senior class and sixty years later, the 1999 Distinguished Graduate Award from the Boston Latin School. He received honorary doctorates from Amherst, Lafayette and Wheaton Colleges. For his key role in establishing the Greater Hartford Open, he was elected to the Connecticut Sports Hall of Fame. A former horseman, he served many years as Senior Master of the Fairfield County Hounds. He was a generous philanthropist giving freely to colleges, secondary schools and Catholic charities. He graduated from Boston Latin School in 1939, Amherst in 1943. He was the commanding officer of US LCT 555 when it was sunk by enemy fire on Omaha Beach on D-day. After the War, he attended Boston University Graduate School of Business. In addition to his wife, Anita Keefe, he is survived by a daughter, Kathleen Raffel, a son Harry V. Keefe III, stepsons Geoffrey de Lesseps and Thomas Verderber and nine grandchildren.
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