As CEO of First Tennessee, starting in 1973, Ron Terry led the bank through a growth spurt that made it a household name across the state.

At the same time, he was deeply invested in his hometown, marshaling a group of banks to finance the reopening of The Peabody in 1981 — the catalyst for the comeback of Downtown — and singing the city’s praise through its people and art wherever he went.

Terry died early Monday at Trezevant Manor. He was 92.

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“He was very passionate. He always had a smile. He was very interested in the men and women of First Tennessee and what they were doing,” said Bruce Hopkins, former chairman of First Horizon Memphis and the West Tennessee region.

Terry’s zeal for the city spread through the corporation because he instilled community service in its culture. Terry celebrated it in his patronage of the arts, first by assembling the bank’s collection of more than 200 pieces of regional art, purchased from public and private collections, and later in commissioning the First Tennessee Heritage Mural.

The mural was a larger-than-life portrayal of the state’s history — east to west — that stretches across more than 100 feet of the bank’s main lobby at 165 Madison.

Ted Faiers, chairman of the painting department at the now-closed Memphis College of Art, completed its 51 panels. The mural stands 17 feet high.

For Terry, it was a landmark because it helped people to see their birthright “and to feel a spirit of unity with it,” he said.

Terry attended Memphis Technical High School, graduated from what is now the University of Memphis in 1952 and immediately went into the U.S Navy.

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He joined what was then First National Memphis in 1957 as a management trainee and rose steadily through the ranks. In 1973, he succeeded Allen Morgan as chairman and CEO. When Terry stepped down 22 years later, First Tennessee was the state’s largest bank holding company.

“One of the things I played a heavy role in,” Terry told a reporter at the end of his long career, “was building a statewide banking system.”

As head of First Tennessee, he purchased 11 banks across the state. What pleased him the most was not the number but “the fact that they were put together right,” he said.

Bryan Jordan, president and CEO of First Horizon Corp., gives Terry much credit for the company’s current culture.

“A lot of it goes back to what he was doing in the ‘70s, ‘80s and early ‘90s to create a strong balance between customers and communities, associates and shareholders, and that shows up in the impact this company has today across the 12 states we serve.”

The name of the holding company was changed in the ‘90s when First Tennessee entered the national mortgage business. The bank’s name was changed to First Horizon in 2019.

“Ron was not just a legend in Memphis, he was very, very well-known across the entire industry,” Jordan said. “He was a good man, a good friend and good mentor.”

The bank named its facility at 4385 Poplar after Terry.

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He served as president of both the federal advisory board to the Federal Reserve System and the Reserve City Bankers’ Association. In 1982, he was one of a dozen bankers invited to the White House to discuss the nation’s banking industry with then-President Ronald Reagan.

“He never met a stranger. And when people would come up and ask how he was doing, he always said ‘Great,’ ” longtime friend Mike Williams said. “ ‘And you?’ He always asked back.”

Terry’s secret for leading, he once said, was listening. “And remembering that God didn’t give us two ears and one mouth by mistake.”

When real estate developer Jack Belz and his family decided to refurbish The Peabody, in ruin with much of the rest of Downtown after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and the neglect that followed, Belz went first to Terry.

“Before it was over, it took a group of seven banks all headquartered here in Memphis to put together what we needed,” Belz said.

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The bankers financed about $10 million. To Belz’s knowledge, it was the first time the city’s banking community had ever partnered on a project.

“Ron was the leader of that group. He believed in us. He believed in The Peabody, its mission and its importance to Memphis and Downtown Memphis.

“Without Ron, I don’t think we would have been able to ever put together what was needed,” Belz said.

The U.S. government’s urban renewal administration ended up guaranteeing 90% of the loan. Belz Enterprises, Belz said, personally guaranteed $1 million.

The hotel reopened in 1981, the same year Terry worked with then-Gov. Lamar Alexander to put on the first conference to look at the city’s existing jobs and what it needed in new skills.

“Ron Terry was an effective businessman who always put Memphis first,” Alexander said in a text. “In the 1980s, he provided inspirational leadership for the Memphis Jobs Conference that brought all parts of the city and county together.” 

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“He was a good friend, and I will miss him.”

Terry served on boards for Holiday Inn, BellSouth and AutoZone, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the University of Tennessee, Rhodes College, and The Boys and Girls Club of Memphis, among others.

Terry leaves his wife, Wynoka; their three daughters, Natalie Joyner, Cindy McCowan and Aja Evans; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Visitation is noon to 1 p.m. Friday, March 10, at Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5668 Poplar Ave. The funeral will follow at 1 p.m.