Ode To Bill Bailey

The industry suffered an irreplaceable loss last month with the death of William E. Bailey. In my 28 years covering insurance, I don't recall anyone with more energy, enthusiasm and good humor (often bitingly self-deprecating) when it came to promoting all the good insurers do–particularly after people are devastated by catastrophes.

Bill–the “master of disaster,” as I used to greet him–passed away at 68 after a bout with cancer. He will be missed by an industry that needs all the warriors it can get to defend its beleaguered reputation.

Bill was on the front lines during the worst disasters to hit this country–and this industry–over the past two decades.

He was the first director of the Hurricane Insurance Information Center, working out of Miami in August 1992 following Hurricane Andrew–a post he held for 18 difficult months as insurers rebuilt homes, businesses and lives.

He reactivated the Center in August 2004, spending the next two years helping policyholders rebound from Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Jeanne, Ivan, Rita, Wilma–and, of course, Katrina.

He served as co-director of the Disaster Insurance Information Office in New York City in 2001, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center–just blocks from the headquarters of the Insurance Information Institute, with which Bill was affiliated for 23 years.

Bill also broadcast his positive message about the industry in his longtime radio and Internet program–”It's Your Money!”–for which he won the Golden Torch Award as Communicator of the Year in 1998.

I had the privilege of not only being a guest on Bill's show, but of co-producing one episode–a fun two-hours featuring my favorite war stories about risks and claims in sports and entertainment.

Wherever he worked, Bill was tirelessly upbeat in pointing out how insurance literally saves insureds from ruin, and sometimes even death. His contribution to keeping the public informed about the positive role the industry plays in our economy and personal lives was priceless.

A lawyer by training, and a polished Harvard grad to boot, Bill never put on airs. While he was “my size”–meaning not very tall–his larger-than-life personality made him stand out in a crowd. He knew educating the public about the value of insurance was often a thankless job, as most are quick to think the worst of the industry. But his spirit never wavered, and neither did his faith in those within this business doing such fine and important work.

Bill Bailey, in some sense, might have lived in the shadow of his far more famous brother, the prominent trial attorney F. Lee Bailey–a fact he often joked about. But Bill was a giant within the insurance industry. Anyone who tries to replace him has some mighty big shoes to fill.

My condolences go out to his family, as well as to all those hundreds (probably thousands) within the insurance business who knew and worked with him on his quest to spotlight this industry in its best light.

A memorial service will be held on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. at Trinity Church, 730 Main Street in Waltham, Mass.

In lieu of flowers, the family requested that a donation be made to the Scholarship Fund at Belmont Hill School, 350 Prospect Street, in Belmont, MA 02478-2662, in memory of Bill Bailey, Class of 1958.

May Bill rest in peace.

Sam Friedman is Editor in Chief of National Underwriter. To share your thoughts about Bill Bailey, go to Sam's Aug. 28 blog post at www.NUSamSoapbox.com. You may also follow Sam on Twitter at http://twitter.com/NUSam.