An FCAS Reaches his 75th Anniversary

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.—He is now 95 years old and lives with his wife of 70 years, Robina (Ina), in a nursing home in Illinois. But 75 years ago Clarence S. Coates joined the fledgling CAS as a Fellow.

It all started in 1921, when Coates became an Associate. The following year he passed Parts 1 and 2 of the Fellowship exam and was named a Fellow of the Society. He was one of three new Fellows in 1922, boosting the total number of Fellows in the Society to 158. With 66 Associates, the membership stood at 224 that year.

When he became a FCAS, Coates was employed by Western States Life Insurance Company, in San Francisco, Calif., as an actuary. His brother Barrett N. Coates (FCAS 1918, FSA 1921) was also employed by Western States at the same time as assistant secretary and actuary.

The Coates family produced several more actuaries—Clarence's son, William D. Coates (ACAS 1955); Barrett's son, Barrett N. Coates Jr. (FSA 1951); and Barrett Jr.'s son, John K. Coates (ASA 1984). As an aside, Coates and Herfurth, the consulting firm founded by Clarence's brother, went through a series of name changes and was eventually acquired by Buck Consultants, Inc. John Coates continues to work there.

Coates' contributions to the Society included a discussion of Thomas Tarbell's paper, "Casualty Insurance Accounting and the Annual Statement Blank," in the 1941-1942 Proceedings.

Coates' early career was centered in San Francisco where he worked for several companies including Federal Mutual Liability Insurance Company, Federal California Underwriters, and Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Company (now Kemper Insurance Companies). In 1939 Coates moved to the Chicago, Illinois, office of Lumbermen's Mutual and was promoted from statistician to assistant secretary. He was promoted in 1948 to third vice president then second vice president in 1958, and again to actuary in 1960. Coates retired in 1966. A fellow Lumbermen's Mutual employee, Earl F. Petz (FCAS 1952), remembers an incident that illustrated Coates' attitude toward work. "When it was time for him to retire I believe his last day was a Friday and the normal routine was if you made it to lunch, then you went home. Not Clarence. He worked until it was quitting time and came in on Saturday to clean out his office. He was that conscientious," Petz related.

Petz continued, "His approach to being the boss was more the case of setting a great example and inspiring people to work instead of being a hard driver that cracked the whip. You wanted to do the job for him and do it right because he was like that." Coates was also reported to have been a regular player in the daily bridge game at lunch time at Lumbermen's Mutual.

Another co-worker, M. Stanley Hughey (FCAS 1947) worked with Coates at Lumbermen's Mutual. "He had been there a number of years at that point," Hughey reported. "He was always a very easy-to-deal-with type of guy. But he was a stickler for details. When you took reports in to him and he cleared them, they were right, or else!"

Both Coates and Hughey resided with their families in Wilmette, Illinois. Hughey remarked about the personal side of Coates, "He was quite a tennis player in his earlier days until his eyes failed him." In Wilmette, Coates contributed to many community activities including serving on the board of a local hospice.

David G. Hartman (FCAS 1972), now senior vice president and chief actuary at Chubb Group of Insurance Companies, remembers Coates from when Hartman was a "lowly summer employee" at Kemper. "The word `crusty' comes to mind," Hartman recalled, "and a ready smile. I also remember his cigars. There were many of them every day."

According to William Coates, the elder Coates encouraged his son to become an actuary at a critical time in his life, "I didn't have any idea what I wanted to be, he said. "I had started in architecture and didn't like that. I was planning to join the army during the Korean War but my folks persuaded me to stay in school."

Father and son worked together only briefly. "It was when I was working a summer job while I was in school," Coates explained. "We decided early on that we didn't want to work together. I felt I would be unable to reach my potential working under my dad and he felt he would have to treat me more fairly than otherwise because I was his son." William Coates recently retired from Daniels-Head Insurance Agency in Hinsdale, Illinois, as president and owner.

During his career as an actuary, Coates saw the CAS grow to 421 members. In the 31 years since his retirement the membership in the CAS has swelled to 2,820. The tremendous growth of actuarial science since the early days of the Society has also caused the number of exams for Fellowship to increase to the current ten.

The CAS would like to thank Coates for his extraordinary membership in the Society and the legacy his family has left with a third generation of actuaries.