History by Names
“ Every man owes some part of his time to the building up of the profession or industry of which he is a member ”. This quote from President Theodore Roosevelt , emulates the people and the impact that they have had on the history of the Kansas Association of Insurance Agents .
• Maynard W . Angwin – Maynard was president of the association in 1960 . He also served as secretary in 1957 and 1958 . He was state national director in 1961 . Maynard was born in Ozark , Missouri . He moved to Kansas in 1924 and received a degree from Pittsburg State College . Maynard started working in the insurance business in 1950 after purchasing an agency that he renamed to the Maynard Angwin Agency in Pittsburg . An article by him appeared in the February 1963 Premium Magazine title “ Face It Boys – Your Problems Aren ’ t New ”. Maynard was very active in the Pittsburg civic affairs . He was a president of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce , belonged to the Elks Club , and Crestwood County Club . He was a Mason and a member of Mirza Temple of the Shrine . Maynard died March 11 , 1980 .
• Omar I . ( Bud ) Armstrong – Bud was president of the association in 1970 . He attended the Kansas City College of Commerce . Bud was an accountant for the state of Kansas prior to becoming an insurance agent in 1936 . During World War II , Bud worked at North American Aviation where he was a supervisor in the tooling engineering department . He purchased the Geo . E . Way insurance Agency in 1955 . He operated this agency for 30 years . He was a Shriner in Johnson County , a member of the Chamber of Commerce in Kansas City , Westgate Masonic Lodge , and the Eastern Star . Bud died on September 21 , 1982 at the age of 68 .
• George F . Bacon – George was president of the association in 1949 . George owned an agency in El Dorado , the George F . Bacon & Company . George stated in his president ’ s Message page : “ In numbers there is strength . If this statement be true , and I ’ m certain it is , it follows that we , as insurance agents , must pool knowledge , experience , resourcefulness and effort to coagulate our thoughts and actions on the many problems immediately facing the insurance industry in Kansas .” George served on the National Association Property Committee in 1950 .
• Preston M . Bacon – Preston was president of the association in 1962 . Preston attended school in Beirut , Lebanon where his father was a Professor of Physics at the American University of Beirut . Preston graduated from Northeast University in 1934 . He started working in the insurance business in 1938 with Liberty Mutual in New York . He moved to Kansas in 1946 and was an agent at Wheeler Kelly & Hagny Investment Co . in Wichita . In 1951 , Preston opened a new agency in Newton called The Bacon Company , it was then merged with the Wells & Oliver Agency and was renamed the Wells-Bacon Agency . He and Brad Wells were partners . In 1963 he gave a speech to the Kansas Chamber of Commerce titled “ Quit Poor Mouthing ”. In it he called for the praising of Kansas and to talk about the good assets – not the negatives . Preston died in March 1978 .
• William Baker – William was the Insurance Superintendent from 1923 to June 1927 . He was the first to have the new title of Insurance Commissioner from June 1927 until Jan 1929 . He was a Republican from Topeka . William attended the 1924 Convention and stated his position regarding the “ Impounded Commissions ”.
• W . Fletcher Bell – Fletcher was the Kansas insurance commissioner from 1971 to 1990 . He spent three years in the U . S . Air Force and continued his education , graduating from Kansas University with a degree in business in 1957 . He started working at the Kansas Insurance Department in 1960 . In 1961 , he was appointed by Commissioner Frank Sullivan as the Accident and Health Department Supervisor . He was elected president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners in 1973 . In 1982 he
98 Kansas Association of Insurance Agents