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It was quite an honor sitting next to Charlotte Spencer—widow of Robert Spencer, the pioneer in risk management for whom the Spencer Educational Foundation is named—during an elegant dinner at the Waldorf to celebrate the scholarship fund’s 30th anniversary.
I was blown away by the parade of those who stopped by our table to pay homage and tell Mrs. Spencer how grants from the fund had changed their lives.
When you’re struggling to pay for an education that can make or break your career, every dime helps, and over the past three decades the Spencer Foundation has helped 454 students afford undergraduate, graduate or continuing ed costs. Many have gone on to work for insurers or brokerages, or in the risk management community.
Spencer has awarded $3.6 million in grants, plus another $1.3 million to fund risk managers and others serving as visiting professor at universities across the country, as well as in Canada and the United Kingdom, to help train the next generation.
The quiet and unassuming Mrs. Spencer was flown up from her Georgia home to sit with members of the Atlanta Chapter of the Risk and Insurance Management Society, which was honored for launching the foundation in 1979.
Throughout the evening, I was regaled with stories about how Bob Spencer of Fuqua Industries helped revolutionize risk management. I heard all about his leadership in self-insurance—growing well beyond passive insurance buyer to proactive strategic player. Mr. Spencer set up shop with a captive in Bermuda long before that was fashionable, and he continued to innovate throughout his career.
I heard how he made the risk management department part of the lives of every employee by setting up a program to lease personal vehicles for $1 and charge a nominal fee to insure them through the company’s self-funded commercial auto program. A gesture like that will certainly make a risk management department relevant to the rank and file, and earn some attention and loyalty when a new loss control or safety program is being implemented.
Mr. Spencer, a former RIMS president, helped create the society’s professional development curriculum, and launched a program—still running—to bring students to the RIMS annual conference. I met many Spencer students this year in Orlando.
Mrs. Spencer was delighted but overwhelmed by all the attention and financial support generated in her husband’s honor. She was teary eyed when the featured guest of the night, J. Patrick Gallagher—head of Arthur J. Gallagher—announced a $100,000 scholarship fund in the name of his dad, John, and uncle, Bob, who formed the brokerage firm.
That grand gesture is one of many demonstrating Gallagher’s commitment to developing the next generation of insurance and risk management talent. Gallagher sponsors 150 interns each year, with many landing full-time work with the brokerage.
“For an industry as important as ours, we need to be more proactive in bringing in the best and the brightest,” he told the crowd.
“When 9/11 hit, we didn’t ask for a bailout,” he noted. “The same goes for losses after Hurricane Katrina. We just did our job of paying claims. We put people’s lives back together.” That’s a pretty good recruiting message.
Bolstered by the big bucks put up by Gallagher, and earlier contributions by the likes of FM Global, the Spencer Foundation is in a terrific position to lend a hand to those who will build and protect this economy’s future. Go to www.spencered.org for more details.