Daniel H. Case, who died yesterday, was a Punahou School alumnus. Advertiser library photo

Case, chairman of J.P. Morgan Chase's JPMorgan H&Q division, played a key role in forging Wall Street's fascination with young Internet companies in the late 1990s and was one of its best-known investment bankers.

He died yesterday morning at his home in the Bay Area among his friends and family after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. He was 44.

A Rhodes scholar, Case was just 34 when, in 1992, he became CEO of the fabled San Francisco-based technology investment bank, Hambrecht & Quist, and presided over some of the Internet economy's most efflorescent IPOs, including Netscape and Amazon.com.

After being diagnosed with cancer last year, he told an interviewer that he was looking for more serenity and balance in his life.

"I hope everyone can go deep down inside, but without having to go through the trauma of cancer," he said. "Mostly, I hope we can all find peace."

Born in Honolulu, Case graduated from Punahou Schools and later earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Princeton University.

When William Hambrecht, co-founder of Hambrecht & Quist, asked faculty at Princeton to recommend the school's "smartest student" for a summer internship, they sent him Case.

Case worked his way through Hambrecht & Quist's corporate finance, venture capital and mergers and acquisitions departments before becoming co-chief executive in 1992 and sole chief executive in 1994. He was named chairman in 1998.

Case excelled not only in the classroom but also on the tennis courts. He played competitively at Punahou and at Princeton.

Greg Kim, a Honolulu attorney, became Case's doubles partner when he was 12 years old.

"He took me under his wing and I learned a lot from Danny. He was a wonderful person and mentor in a lot of ways. It's big loss for me personally," Kim said.

Even as the Hambrecht & Quist's top executive, Case was often seen walking the halls of the firm, ducking into employees' offices for informal chats. At meetings and social events, he made a point of introducing staff members as partners, rather than identifying them by their position.

"I was astounded that he would introduce people that way," said Paul Noglows, a former Hambrecht & Quist managing director who Case hired in 1996. "It meant a lot to me and others."

In 1999, two years after an aborted attempt to sell Hambrecht & Quist to Merrill Lynch & Co., Case sold the 31-year-old firm to Chase Manhattan Corp., now called J.P. Morgan Chase, for $1.2 billion.

On conference call describing the transaction, he mentioned his marriage, a rare reference by a CEO about his private life in such a forum.

While struggling with the cancer, Case created a foundation called Accelerating a Brain Cancer Cure, with his brother Steve Case, chairman of AOL Time Warner, and their wives.

Case is survived by his wife, Stacey Black Case, and his four children, Alexander, Winston, John Daniel and Charlotte. In addition, he leaves his parents, Dan and Carol Case, his brothers Steve and Jeff, and his sister Carin.

Funeral services will be held at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco July 2 at 3:30 p.m. The family has asked that any gifts in Case's honor be made to ABC2. The family, which is in San Francisco, had not yet planned a Honolulu service.