EDWARD JOHNSON BOND 1888-1941 Edward J. Bond died in ...

Download PDF
5 downloads 144 Views 573KB Size Report
Comment
Edward J. Bond died in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 12, 1941. He was President ... Mr. Bond was born October 18, 1888, in Petersburg, Virginia. He was .
OBITUARY

I

625

I

OBITUARY

EDWARD J O H N S O N BOND 1888-1941 Edward J. Bond died in Baltimore, Maryland, on November 12, 1941. He was President of the Maryland Casualty Company, and was at the home office of the company when he became ill during the afternoon of the day of his death. Without having recovered sufficiently to be moved from the infirmary of the company, he died there in the early evening. Mr. Bond was born October 18, 1888, in Petersburg, Virginia. He was educated in the Boys' Latin School of Baltimore and at Virginia Military Institute at Lexington, Virginia. From the latter institution where his major subject was engineering, he graduated in 1908 with the degree, Bachelor of Science. In November of the same year, when only twenty years of age, Edward J. Bond entered the insurance business in the auditing division of the Maryland. Within a year he was transferred to the Liability Department. At that time F. Highlands Burns was a vice-president of the Maryland, in general charge of liability underwriting. Thus early in his career, Mr. Bond began his association with Mr. Burns which continued until the death of the latter in 1935. When John T. Stone, President and founder of the company, died on May 9, 1920, and was succeeded by Mr. Burns as President, Mr. Bond, in turn, succeeded Mr. Burns as First Vice-President and Director of Casualty Underwriting. During this period, Mr. Bond was a strong right-hand aid to the president of the company on underwriting matters. He continued in this office until 1931 when he was designated Senior VicePresident, which position he held until he became President of the company in January, 1937. His election to the presidency was a popular choice among his colleagues in the insurance fraternity at large as well as among his associates in the company itself. Except for an interruption during the period of Mr. Bond's service in the Army during the World War, he spent his entire active adult life with the Maryland. For several months during 1918 he attended the Third Officers' Training School from which he was graduated as second lieutenant. In a short time he was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant, and was serving as a regimental intelligence officer in the 810th Pioneer Infantry when the war ended. On November 2, 1933, in recognition of his twenty-five years of service with the Maryland, Mr. Bond's associates of the company gave a dinner in

626

OBI~U~Y

his honor at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. On this occasion, F. Highlands Burns, then President of the company, paid high tribute to the support Mr. Bond had always given him, naming as the chief characteristics of the guest of honor, honesty, sincerity, efficiency, courage and loyalty. The record of Mr. Bond's advancement in the Maryland in the course of his career of thirty-three years, in itself, gives proof of the energy, ability and loyalty with which he served that company. In fact, his conscientious devotion to the profession of insurance, whether in work" for his own company or for the business as a whole, prompted his associates to remark that he made a religion of his work. Important as was his place in the development of his own company, Mr. Bond, almost from the beginning of his insurance career devoted much time, thought and energy to work with representatives of other companies in cooperative organizations. He had a keen appreciation of the necessity of joint efforts to accomplish the common objectives of groups of carriers and he also had the qualities of mind and the personality which fitted him for effective work with his colleagues of other carriers. From the early years of the voluntary rating organization now known as the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters, Mr. Bond represented the Maryland on numerous important committees, including nineteen years of service for his company as a member of the Executive Committee of the Bureau. He was very active in all Bureau affairs, devoting his time and energies to the welfare of the organization and its members in spite of the heavy duties and responsibilities of his position in the Maryland. For many years, Mr. Bond represented his company on the Executive Committee of the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives and in 1941 was elected Vice-President of the Association. He was always very active in this organization, giving generously of his time to promote the best interests of the entire business. Throughout his career, Mr. Bond was consistent in holding a broad view of the proper functions of the institution of insurance. Many insurance men think of their business only as part of the distributive system--the collection of premiums from those who are exposed to a hazard and the distribution of the money so collected to those who have suffered the misfortune. This was not the point of view of Mr. Bond. He believed that insurance companies could use their facilities with great advantage to themselves, to their policyholders and to society in general in preventing these misfortunes from happening. Mr. Bond was a firm believer in conservation and was consistently and from the beginning a strong supporter of the conservational work of the stock companies. He was, at his death, a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Conservation Bureau and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Center for Safety Education of New York University, and for many years before that he had

OBITUARY

627

been continuously a member of the committee that guided the earlier work of the National Bureau of Casualty and Surety Underwriters in the conservation field. Mr. Bond was active in the acquisition cost conferences throughout the history of these agreements. He was one of the pioneers in setting up the structure of the conferences and formulating the original rules of operation. Later on he worked on problems as they came up in the operation of the conferences and continued his constructive work reshaping the regulations and policies of the conferences as time went on. In the work of formulating and establishing uniform rate-making methods and standard underwriting practices in workmen's compensation insurance, Mr. Bond was one of the pioneers. His interest in this branch of insurance activity was, however, not confined to the pioneering stages. Throughout his career, he continued actively to participate in compensation rate-making, always taking an important part in the shaping of general policies. An account of Mr. Bond's activities in workmen's compensation ratemaking would, in fact, be a remarkably complete history of cooperation by the companies in the improvement and standardization of methods, the centralization of control and all phases of the cooperative system which now exists. As a representative of the Maryland, which was one of the companies participating for the Workmen's Compensation Service Bureau, Mr. Bond took part in the organization and activities of the 1915 Joint Conference on Workmen's Compensation Rates. This Conference comprised representatives of the Massachusetts Rating and Inspection Bureau, the Compensation Inspection Rating Board of New York, the Workmen's Compensation Service Bureau, the Insurance Departments of New York, Massachusetts, California, Maryland, and Pennsylvania and the Industrial Commission of Wisconsin. Mr. Bond was present at the initial organization meeting of the Conference held on September 28, 1915, at the Hotel Manhattan in New York; he continued work thereafter as Chairman of the Committee on Rules. The most important achievement of the Conference was the consolidation and standardization of methods. In order to make this benefit enduring, a standing committee on manual rules, classifications and rates was established. Through this Committee, all proposed changes in rules, classifications and rates were cleared, and a high degree of uniformity was maintained in the Manual for the various states. As one of the seven members of this "standing committee," the Maryland was represented by Mr. Bond. In 1917, the membership of this committee, officially designated the Standard Committee of the Joint Conference on Workmen's Compensation Insurance Rates, was increased by the addition of five companies and became known as the

628

OBITUARY

"Augmented Standing Committee" or the 19!7 Conference on Workmen's Compensation Insurance Rates. Continuing to represent the Maryland, Mr. Bond participated actively in the work of the Conference. Briefly this work consisted of conducting the 1917 revision of rates and, in this process, amplifying the rate-making method then existing and placing it on a sounder actuarial basis. At the close of the revision, the Augmented Standing Committee was superseded by the National Reference Committee on Workmen's Compensation Insurance which continued the work of maintaining uniformity of manual procedure. There also existed in 1918 a committee known as the National Reference Committee on Schedule Rating. Those two committees coordinated their work and continued to function until December, 1918, when they were brought together under one organization known as the National Council on Workmen's Compensation Insurance. The first general rate revision undertaken by the National Council was known as the 1920 Revision of Workmen's Compensation Insurance Rates. The work accomplished in this revision represented a distinct advance in compensation insurance rate-making. Representing the Maryland in the work of committees which supervised the revision, Mr. Bond took a prominent part in the entire proceedings. He was, at the beginning of the Council and during the following two decades, very influential in determining all of its major policies. With the establishment of the National Council, the National Bureau no longer functioned as the central body for compensation rate-making. However, the Bureau continued its research and study on compensation problems and Mr. Bond took an active part in directing these studies and making recommendations designed to promote the interests of stock companies. He was a member of the Special Executive Investigating Committee on Workmen's Compensation Insurance, such committee having been authorized at the 1926 Annual Meeting of the National Bureau to study the compensation rate situation. The investigations and recommendations of this Committee resulted in the introduction first in New York and later in most of the other states, of a fundamentally revised rating program into which the element of variation by size of risk was injected. With the appointment in 1930 of a sub-committee of the National Bureau Executive Committee, to conduct studies and submit recommendations on Workmen's Compensation rate-making, executive committee work on this subject took a permanent place in the activities of the Bureau. Mr. Bond had served on this Committee continuously until the time of his death. Mr. Bond was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1921. As his work was largely in the field of administration, he did not take an active part in the affairs of the Society. However, his sympathy with the purposes and activi-

OBITUARY

629

ties of the organization followed naturally from his never-failing readiness to share in cooperative efforts directed toward the scientific solution of casualty insurance problems.

OBITUARY CHARLES H. BURHANS 1903-1942 Charles H. Burhans, a Fellow of this Society, died January 15, 1942, after a lingering illness. Mr. Burhans was born in Owosso, Michigan, on the fifteenth day of July, 1903. He lived there throughout his youth, attending the local public schools. About the time of graduation from high school he conceived the idea of entering the service of his country, and his character and scholastic record were such that he received an appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. The malady which was to plague Mr. Burhans during his lifetime manifested itself early causing him to accept a position with the management of some lumbering interests in his native state. This proved to be too rigorous a life, so, in January, 1928, he entered the service of the Standard Accident Insurance Company. Becoming interested in Casualty Actuarial work, he studied for and passed the examinations of this Society and was admitted as a fellow on November 18, 1932. Mr. Burhans remained with the Standard until November 29, 1940, when he was granted leave of absence because of severe illness which proved to be fatal.

OBITUARY MILES M E N A N D E R DAWSON 1863-1942 Though poor health had forced curtailment of his activities in recent years, few members of the actuarial profession have rendered more varied and distinguished service, public and private, or led more active lives than Miles

630

OBITUARy

M. Dawson, one of our charter members, who passed away at Orland, Florida, on March 27, 1942. Born at Viroqua, Wisconsin, May 13, 1863, he entered the actuarial profession in New York in the 1890's, coming with a background of local agency work in general insurance and service as a soliciting agent in life insurance. He was one of the few and first Americans to become a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries (London) in 1904. In the same year he passed the examinations and was admitted a Fellow of the Actuarial Society of America. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1907. He probably first became widely known as actuary of the Armstrong Committee in 1905. The reform legislation which followed that committee's investigation, much of which was his suggestion, aroused strong antagonism but proved him a man of vision. In 1908 with Lee K. Frankel he investigated workmen's compensation in Europe for the Russell Sage Foundation. He assisted in drafting the New York Workmen's Compensation Law and in setting up the State Fund. He was also consultant when the Federal War Risk Bureau was set up during the first world war. We leave the memorial of his legal work to be recorded elsewhere. Growing out of his consulting practice in life insurance and his work with the Armstrong Committee he published "Various Derived Tables, American Experience 3 & 3 ½ % " and "Comparative Reserve Tables," both volumes representing great labor in his office and of great value in practical life actuarial work. He obtained from correspondents in Europe the data for the compilation of the Danish Survivorship Annuity Tables and the Dutch Remarriage Tables which proved very valuable in the pioneer period in our work. In addition to these publications he wrote other less well-known books on life insurance and actuarial science, tutored some of our charter members for their examinations in the Actuarial Society, and presented numerous papers published in the Transactions of the Actuarial Society and in our Proceedings as well as the Procee~lings of the International Congresses of Actuaries. Those who knew him at the time our Society was founded and in the decade following, knew him as a genial fellow, who knew some of the good eating places about lower New York, and was always interested in the progress of younger men. He was of superabundant energy which enabled him, despite his load of professional work, of which only the highlights have been related, to take an active part in civic affairs and attain high Masonic standing. He was also, like his ideal, Elizur Wright, deeply interested in poetry and philosophy, especially ethics. He published a volume on each, "The Ethics of Confucius" and "The Ethics of Socrates."

OmTU~Y

631

OBITUARY

R O B E R T COWEN LEES H A M I L T O N 1864- 1941 Robert Cowen Lees Hamilton died on November 15, 1941, at the Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut. He was 77 years old. Mr. Hamilton was retired as Comptroller of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company on May 1, 1938. His farm in New Hampshire was one of his greatest interests during the years that followed, except when he was confined following the fracture of his leg, which occurred about a year before his death. Mr. Hamilton was born and spent the earlier part of his life in Scotland. He attended Herriot College in Edinburgh. He later entered the banking field, becoming associated with a branch of the British Linen Company Bank and remaining with that firm four years. He also served ten years in the territorial army of Scotland before coming to the United States. In addition to being a Fellow of this Society, he was also a member of the Actuarial Society of America. He was engaged in the insurance business for many years. Prior to joining the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company on May 1, 1914, he had organized the Royal Indemnity Company as an indemnity subsidiary of the Royal Fire Assurance Company of Liverpool, England. Mr. Hamilton became Comptroller of the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company in 1916, which position he held during the rapid growth of that company until his retirement. His genial and understanding personality endeared him to his friends and associates and was reflected in the character of the company with which he was so long associated. That influence will long endure. I OBITUARY

ROBERT HENDERSON 1871-1942 Through the death of Robert Henderson on February 16, 1942, the actuarial profession lost one of its distinguished members who had contributed greatly to the scientific achievements of the profession. Born in Russell, Ontario, on May 24, 1871, he gave early indication of remarkable mathematical capacity, matriculating at the age of sixteen at the University

632

o~I~U~Y

of Toronto with first class honors and winning the scholarship in mathematics. He graduated in 1891 at the head of his class in Honour Mathematics and was appointed Fellow in Mathematics for the following year. In 1892 Mr. Henderson left academic life and entered the Government Insurance Department at Ottawa where he served for about five years. During this time he took the examinations of the Institute of Actuaries of Great Britain, becoming a Fellow in 1896. Mr. Henderson left Canada in 1897 to enter the employ of the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States. This brought him into close contact with many members of the Actuarial Society of America, and he was enrolled as an Associate of that Society in 1900, completing the Fellowship examinations in 1902. As early as 1905 he was elected to its Council. From 1912 to 1915 he served as Secretary and, after being elected VicePresident for two periods of two years each, he became President in 1922. While Mr. Henderson's major work was in the field of the life insurance actuary, it is testimony to the breadth of his interest in all actuarial theory that he became a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society in 1919. His contributions to the Proceedings were not numerous but his development within his company of experience rating methods for surplus distribution under group insurance coverages indicated his complete grasp of a subject commonly dealt with by this Society. All of Mr. Henderson's business life, after leaving Canada, was spent in the service of the Equitable Life Assurance Society. In 1903 he was appointed Assistant Actuary and in 1911 was made Actuary. In addition to this latter title the position of Second Vice-President was accorded him in 1920 and in 1929 he was appointed Vice-President. He retired in 1936, after thirty-nine years of service with the Equitable, and thereafter lived in Crown Point, New York, where he died. In actuarial circles Mr. Henderson's mathematical power was generally recognized both as a mark of personal distinction and as an influence which contributed greatly to the scientific productiveness and standing of the profession on this continent. The high quality and value of his many papers found in the Transactions of the Actuarial Society, his publications within the field of mortality statistics and graduation, and his active part in the work of compiling inter-company experience, give him an outstanding place in the history of our science. He was generous also in contributing his time and abilities to outside matters calling for actuarial assistance. He served on the consulting board established in 1914 by the Commission on Pensions for the Teachers' Retirement Fund of the City of New York, and in 1915 undertook the actuarial work connected with the establishment of the Church Pension Fund of the Episcopal Church. He also served on the Committee on the Census appointed

oBr~u~r

633

in 1914 by the Actuarial Society to advise the Director of the Census, and later his individual work in connection with the mathematical formulae and methods used in the construction of the United States Abridged Life Tables (1919-1920) was publicly acknowledged by the Director. In 1935 Mr. Henderson's contributions to the scientific world were recognized by his Alma Mater, the University of Toronto, when it conferred upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Science. His broad interest in the field of mathematics and his own standing in that field are indicated also by the fact that he was made a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Mathematical Society. He was also a member of the American Philosophical Society, the American Statistical Association and the Mathematical Association of America. Those who had the privilege of close personal association with Mr. Henderson recognized in him not only an intellect of extraordinary grasp and power but a character equally to be admired. His was the modesty of the truly great mind of complete integrity and any pursuit of self-interest was foreign to his nature. The actuarial profession and those associated with him have suffered irreparable loss through his passing.

OBITUARY F. ROBERTSON JONES 1872 - 1941 F. Robertson Jones, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society since 1928, a prominent figure in the insurance field for more than two decades and formerly a well-known educator, died at his home in Winter Park, Florida, on December 26, 1941. Mr. Jones was sixty-nine. Death ensued after a prolonged illness which required his retirement from active business responsibilities some years ago. A writer of exceptional ability and a scholar of keen perception, Mr. Jones contributed a number of interesting and important papers to the Society during the twelve years of his fellowship. In 1932 he contributed a written discussion on Clarence W. Hobbs' paper, "The Attitude of the Courts in Construing the Workmen's Compensation Act." Again, in 1935, Mr. Jones discussed Robert V. Sinnott's paper, "Comment on the Underwriting of Compensation for Silicosis," and at the May meeting in 1936 he discussed another of Mr. H0bbs' papers, "Social Insurance and the Constitution." Mr. Jones' interest in the Casualty Actuarial Society was demonstrated long before he became a Fellow. In 1921, when he was Secretary-Treasurer

634

OBITUARy

of the Bureau of Personal Accident and Health Underwriters, he brought about a ioint meeting of the Bureau and Society for an important discussion of non-cancellable accident and health insurance. From the time he was admitted as a Fellow, he was an active, studious and intellectual contributor to the progress of the Society. Mr. Jones was born in Maryland. He was graduated by Western Maryland College, received a doctorate in philosophy from John Hopkins University, and devoted his early career to teaching. He was a member of the faculties of Western Maryland, Johns Hopkins, Union College and Bryn Mawr College. In 1906 he made his first entrance into the insurance business, through the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York. His duties there included editing the company's widely commended house publication. He rose to the position of Assistant Secretary and in 1912 left the Fidelity and Casualty Company to become Secretary-Treasurer of the Workmen's Compensation Publicity Bureau, which he helped to establish. In 1926 he was one of the founders of the Association of Casualty and Surety Executives, became its Secretary-Treasurer, arid in 1929 was elected General Manager, a position he held until his retirement from active responsibilities. When Mr. Jones retired as Secretary-Treasurer of the Bureau of Personal Accident and Health Underwriters he was made Honorary SecretaryTreasurer for life. He was a member of the "Committee of Nine" on Financial Responsibility for Automobile Accidents, Secretary-Treasurer of the International Association of Casualty and Surety Underwriters, Fellow of the Insurance Institute of America, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Federal Bureau of War Risk Insurance, the latter appointment having come to him during the First World War. Mr. Jones was the author of many publications. He contributed several works on historical and economic subjects, and compiled the Digest of Workmen's Compensation Laws of the United States and Territories. His writings were read widely in most of the important insurance and Iegal periodicals of the time. f

OBITUARY

W E N D E L L MELVILLE STRONG 1871 - 1942 Wendell Melville Strong, a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society for more than twenty-five years, died at his home in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, on March 30, 1942.

O~ZTt~ARV

685

Mr. Strong was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on February 6, 1871, of old New England stock, and lived in New Jersey the greater part of his life. He attended Montclair High School, and graduated from Yale in 1893. Because of the excellence of his college record he was urged to continue with his mathematical studies and so entered upon graduate work at Cornell, from which he received a Master's Degree in 1894, and at the University of Goettingen in Germany. Subsequently he returned to Yale where he was a Fellow in Mathematics, 1894-1895, and an instructor, 1895-1900, and received the degree of Ph.D. in 1898. During this period of college activity he was the author, or joint author, of certain tables and text books which were widely used. In 1900 Mr. Strong was induced by the late Emory McClintock to enter the Actuary's Department of The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York, where he became, in due course, Assistant Actuary in 1904, Associate Actuary in 1911, and, in 1941, Vice-President and Actuary, which position he held until his retirement. As was natural for one with his mathematical ability, Mr. Strong promptly qualified for membership in the Actuarial Society of America, being one of the first dozen individuals to become Fellows by examination. Throughout his career he was constructively active in the affairs of the Society, being Editor of the Transactions 1909-16, Secretary 1916-22, Vice-President 1922-23 and 1926-27, and President 1930-31, and, of course, a member of the Council from 1909 until his death. An unusual and valuable feature of his service to the Society was his series of Legal Notes, digesting court decisions in insurance cases, during the years 1910-27 and 1935-40. Other scientific organizations to which Mr. Strong belonged were the American Institute of Actuaries, American Mathematical Society and London Mathematical Society. Early in his insurance career he studied law and after receiving an LL.B. degree from New York University was admitted to the New York Bar. Mr. Strong will be missed and sincerely regretted, both in insurance and other business circles because of his professional attainments, and by a very wide circle of friends who had the privilege of enjoying his many impressive and engaging personal qualities.