Emmett Russell, Jr. Award
The Emmett Russell, Jr. award was established by the Institute of Home Office Underwriters to honor of their founding member and first President. The award was conceived by the Institute in 1985 with the first recipient Charles A Will being honored at the 50th Anniversary Meeting that took place in New York City.
The first reference of this award was published in the 1986 proceeding of the Institute and it simply said:
The Emmett Russell, Jr. award is sponsored by The Institute of Home Office Underwriters and is named for and honors the Founder and first President of the Institute. Its purpose is to recognize those individuals who have made significant contributions to the field of risk selection and/or to the life insurance industry. The award will be given not more frequently than annual and will be presented at the annual meeting of the Institute of Home Office Underwriters. Past or present affiliation with the Institute is not a prerequisite. The actual award will be a suitably inscribed Paul Revere bowl which will be donated by American General Life and Accident Insurance Company of Nashville, Tennessee as the successor to Emmett Russell’s employer American General will play no role in the selection process, such being an exclusive function of the Institute, its Officers and Executive.
The award was granted to 17 individual recipients. The last recipient of this award was Mr. C. Joseph Dahl in 2002.
With the merger of the Institute of Home Office Underwriters and the Home Office Life Underwriters Association it was decided that a new award would be created to replace this award and the new award would be supported by the governing Academy of Life Underwriting. While Emmett Russell, Jr. is and continues to be one of the most revered founding members of our underwriting profession, it was felt that a new award would better represent and strengthen our unified Individual North American Underwriting community.
EMMETT RUSSELL, JR. AWARD RECIPIENTS
1986 Charles A. Will
1987 Emil L. Tobler
1988 Harry A. Woodman
1989 Andrew C. Webster
1990 John Gummere
1991 Benjamin A. Currier, Jr.
1992 Donald C. Chambers, M.D.
1993 H. Elroy Harding
1994 John T. Snore
1995 Dr. William Beadles
1996 Richard B. Singer, M.D.
1997 Kenneth Balay
1998 Larry R. Pike
1999 William P. Castelli
2000 William K. Phillips
2001 Brian Baxter
2002 Carl Joseph Dahl