Thomas Bailard

1942 - 2017

Thomas Edwards Bailard

November 20, 1942 - December 11, 2017

Thomas Edwards Bailard, loving and beloved husband and father, passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, on Monday, December 11th, 2017. Born on November 20th, 1942, Tom was a fourth-generation Californian, whose ancestors traveled to California on a covered wagon and helped settle the Southern California town of Carpinteria. Tom grew up on his family's lemon (later avocado) orchard, which was managed by his father, Robert Edwards Bailard. Tom and his sister, Gwynne Bailard Christison, often played hide-and-seek in the orchard on horseback and, after bedtime, passed notes back-and-forth through a secret hole drilled into the wall connecting their bedrooms. He attended Carpinteria High School (at least, on those days he didn't find a way to sneak out of class to surf), and could be seen driving his Chevy around town, a bit too fast for his mother, Martha Jayne Bailard's comfort.

Tom spent his undergraduate years at Stanford University, Class of 1964. During his college years, a self-taught pianist, he was a member of a rock-and-roll band named The Lancers, playing gigs all over Northern California. A member of the ROTC program at Stanford, Tom deployed to Vietnam after graduation as a member of the Brownwater Navy. He served as First Lieutenant on the U.S.S. Summit County, an LST-542-class tank landing ship responsible for delivering supplies and troops upriver. It was during these years that Tom discovered his love of sunrises and his natural talent as a leader.

After completing his service, Tom enrolled in Stanford Business School. Upon graduation, he joined with classmates, Ron Kaiser and Larry Biehl, to found the wealth management company Bailard, Biehl, & Kaiser (BB&K), in 1969. In 1973, they co-authored the first of six editions of one of the original college textbooks published on the subject of personal money management, aptly titled Personal Money Management, which sold more than half of a million copies.

A descendent of pioneers, it is not surprising that Tom was also an innovator in the financial sector, with BB&K set up as one of the first fee-only financial planning practices. He was also directly responsible for the formation of the Bailard, Biehl & Kaiser International Fund, Real Estate Investment Trust, and three Exchange Funds, among others.

After the retirement of his partners, Tom took sole leadership of BB&K, which was later renamed Bailard to reflect the evolution and growth of the firm. As a leader, he cultivated and sustained a company culture of trust, community, and commitment. He thought of Bailard as a family, and it is this quality that helped propel Bailard to be named one of Wall Street Journal's Top Small Workplaces in 2009. Even after his retirement, he remained an active member of the firm, as a consultant and chairman of the Bailard REIT board.

Tom was a life-long believer in community service. He was a Big Brother from 1971 through 1981. He and his wife, Terri, took his then "little" brother, Mark, to the first Star Wars Movie in 1977 and followed up with a reunion, of sorts, when they all attended "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" together in 2015.

Tom first started fundraising for his alma mater as an undergraduate. That commitment led to becoming the Chair of Stanford's Annual Fund from 1984 through 1988. In 1985 he received the Alumni Association's highest award for volunteer service, the Gold Spike. Tom was also an active volunteer for Stanford's highly successful Centennial Campaign which began in 1987. In 1989 Tom joined the board of Stanford University Hospital for a 5-year term.

Tom's volunteer career reached far beyond Stanford University, however. He was a member of the Peninsula Community Foundation board from 1992 through 2002, chairing that board in 1998 and 1999. In the mid-1990's he served on the board of Menlo School in Atherton and was honored to deliver the commencement address in 1999, the topic: "Giving Back to Your Community." In 2007, Tom joined the board of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and has served on that board ever since. In 2008 and 2009 he spearheaded an effort to "bring the voice of the informed public into housing policy decisions in San Mateo County," a program called Threshold. Finally, upon his diagnosis with Parkinson's Disease, he joined the board of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale. He once said that, in some ways, getting Parkinson's and joining that board was a blessing, as it gave him purpose after his retirement from his life's work at Bailard.

Most importantly, Tom was a deeply loved husband, father, and grandfather. He loved little more in life than to make his wife, Terri Snow Bailard, laugh. They met in 1974 when Terri walked into his office looking for financial advice. He called her the next day and told her that he would like to take her on a date; but, he also warned that, if she agreed, she would have to find another financial adviser because it would be inappropriate for him to both advise and date her at the same time. He liked to joke that her response was that she would rather keep him as a financial adviser. But, in actuality, she chose to go on the date, for which their children are grateful.

After a brief courtship, Tom and Terri married in 1975 and had two children, Catie and Rob. Catie married David Schneider this past May at the family home; at which Tom momentarily ditched his cane to put on a show-stopping father-daughter dance. Rob married Rhiannon Pregitzer Bailard in 2009. Their three-year old son, Brixton Bailard, shared a very special bond with his grandfather, whom he called Doodah. It is difficult to encapsulate in words what Tom meant to his family—he was a moral compass, he was a model of hard work and initiative, he was a provider, he was a jokester and story-teller, he was a protector, he was a dispenser of wisdom, and he was a hero.

A memorial service will be held at Stanford Memorial Church on Wednesday, December 20th, at 2:00, to be followed by a reception at Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club. In lieu of flowers, his family asked that donations be made in his name to Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area (www.bbbsba.org) or the United Way's special relief fund for victims of the Thomas Fire in the Carpinteria and surrounding area (http://vcunitedway.org/).