USA > Connecticut > History of Connecticut, Volume III > Part 29
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He was admitted to the bar of the state of Arkansas, in 1903, began his career in law practice, and acquired his first experience in the insurance field with the firm of A. B. Banks and Company at Fordyce, Arkansas, with which he was identified from 1907 to 1909. In the latter year he joined the Phoenix Insurance Company as a spe- cial agent, and left to become special agent with AEtna Insurance Company in 19II.
After eight years in that capacity, Mr. McCain came to Hart- ford in 1919 to assume duties as assistant secretary of the AEtna Insurance Company. He was promoted to secretary in 1923, and four years later became vice president and secretary of AEtna Insurance Company and two related firms, the World Fire and Marine Insur- ance Company and Century Indemnity Company. He was promoted to the presidency of the same companies in 1933. These were the predecessors of the firms at present known as the AEtna Insurance Group. When Mr. McCain retired from the presidency of the Group in 1950, he became chairman of its board.
From 1927 to 1929, he held office as president of the South- eastern Underwriters Association, and he was president of the East- ern Underwriters Association from 1937 to 1939 and was also pres-
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ident of the Inland Marine Association. In 1949 he was elected pres- ident of the National Board of Fire Underwriters, and held office until 1951.
He is a director of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Com- pany, the Hartford National Bank and Trust Company, Chemical Bank and Trust Company of New York, and is a trustee of the Me- chanics Savings Bank in his home city.
Public improvement and welfare activities of his state have at- tracted Mr. McCain's interest. He was a member of the Hartford Bridge Commission from 1939 to 1950, and was chairman of the com- mission from 1944 to 1950. He is a member of the Hartford Flood Commission.
Mr. McCain is a member of Phi Beta Kappa national scholastic honor society, and of St. Andrews Society of New York. His local memberships include The Hartford Club and Hartford Golf Club. He attends the Congregational Church and is a Democrat in his poli- tics.
On April II, 1927, William Ross McCain married Dorothy May Foster, daughter of Harry Howard Foster and Elisabeth (Wallin) Foster. They are the parents of two children: I : Elisabeth, who was born on December 16, 1918. 2. William Ross, born on July 21, 1924. The McCain home is at 33 Sycamore Road, West Hartford.
ALLEN HOYT PEASE
As an attorney, Allen Hoyt Pease practices at New Britain, and is a member of the bar associations of both his own state and New York. He is a veteran of World War II, and is now rendering valuable service to the Civil Defense program.
He is a native of New Britain, and was born on June 25, 1925, son of Maurice Hoyt and Barbara (Moore) Pease. His father holds an executive position with the Stanley Works, and is a veteran of World War I, in the course of which he served as a major in the 30Ist Engineers. Allen H. Pease received his early education in local schools, including New Britain High School, and went to the Univer- sity of Chicago for his advanced academic studies following comple- tion of his military service in World War II. He was with the Head- quarters and Service Company of the 245th Combat Engineer Bat- talion in the European Theater of Operations.
After he had completed his courses at the University of Chicago and graduated there with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948, Mr. Pease
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went to the University of Virginia at Charlottesville for his profes- sional studies. There he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1953. He was admitted to the New York, Connecticut and local bar as- sociations, and has since practiced as an attorney in New Britain, having his offices at 73 Cedar Street.
Mr. Pease was named Civil Defense Director of the Town of Berlin in 1956, and has served capably in that office since. He belongs to Phi Alpha Delta legal fraternity and to Phi Delta Epsilon honorary society. His other memberships include the New Britain Club, Shut- tle Meadow Country Club, and the University Club of Hartford. He is a communicant of the First Church of Christ, Congregational, of New Britain.
At Brockton, Massachusetts, on December 21, 1947, Allen Hoyt Pease married Beverly Knight, daughter of Chesterton S. and Marion E. Knight. The couple are the parents of the following children : I. Allen Hoyt, Jr., who was born on January 26, 1949. 2. Randall Stewart, born January 2, 1953. 3. Marion Elizabeth, born April 20, 1955. 4. Carol Lewis, born August 27, 1957.
HENRY FREDERICK HALL
A man with lifelong experience in the dairy industry, Henry Frederick Hall was a founder and for many years head of the Brock- Hall Dairy, one of the largest in New England. Although now re- tired, he still takes an interest in this organization. He has to his credit a distinguished record in public life, having served as State Rep- resentative and State Senator, and in other offices.
A native of Hamden, where he now lives, Mr. Hall was born on November 24, 1875, his birthplace being the spot where the Hamden grade school now stands. His father, Charles Edward Hall, was a native of Guilford. He had a farm, but for twenty years worked in Hamden. Then, in 1890, he entered the dairy business on a small scale, serving individual customers on a route from his own dairy farm. He was a veteran of service with the Ninth Connecticut In- fantry Band in the Civil War. He married Ellen Hemingway, a native of New Haven whose father had organized the city's fire de- partment and was its first chief. She died in 1905, and Charles E. Hall died two years later.
Receiving his early education in his native place, Henry F. Hall attended the little one-room schoolhouse on Skiff Street in Hamden, which was the city's first public school. He later entered Mrs. San- ford's Private School, which was located where the Meadowbrook
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Country Club now stands. He was also a student at Cargill's Business College in New Haven.
When his education was completed, Mr. Hall immediately began his career in the dairy industry. He joined his father, with whom he remained until the latter's death in 1907, and he then went into business independently, under the name of the Hall Dairy. This con- cern he headed until 1925. In that year he joined forces with a man who had been his friendly competitor for many years, Mr. Charles W. Brock. Their merged organizations became the present Brock- Hall Dairy, which has become a leader in its field. Initially, Mr. Hall was vice president of this organization, but he later became president, and held that office until 1944, when he became chairman of the board. He resigned from that office on July 1, 1958. However, he remains a member of the corporation's board of directors. He is a member of the International Association of Milk and Ice Creani Dealers.
Mr. Hall began his career in public life in 1917, when he was elected second selectman of Hamden on the Republican ticket. He was later elected State Representative for the sessions beginning int 1921, 1923, and 1925. In 1927 he took his seat as State Senator from the Thirteenth District. From 1931 to 1935 he was county commis- sioner. For a period of sixteen years he was captain of the Whitney- ville Volunteer Fire Company. He was a member of the Home Guard in Hamden for some years.
Since his retirement, Mr. Hall has been able to devote more time to his avocation of many years, floriculture. He is especially in- terested in developing fine varieties of zinnias. He is a life member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks; a member of Adel- phi Lodge No. 63, Free and Accepted Masons: Order of the Eastern Star Chapter No. 76; Pulaski Chapter No. 26, Royal Arch Masons; Hejaz Grotto, Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm; Crawford Council No. 19, Royal and Select Masters; and Ma- sonic Veterans Association of Connecticut. He is a member of his city's Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, Hamden Historical Society, Milford Club, and the Union League.
On June 24, 1902, in New Haven. Henry Frederick Hall married Augusta Wuestefeld, daughter of Andrew and Dorothea Nuelsen Wuestefeld. Her father was a cabinetmaker. Mrs. Hall attended Fair Haven schools. She was a member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a charter member and for many years a director of the Ham- den Visiting Nurse Association. Her death occurred on March 7,
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1954. Mr. and Mrs. Hall were the parents of two sons: I. Donald Andrew, who was born on December 6, 1903, in Hamden. He was active in the management of the Brock-Hall Dairy until his death in 1955. He leaves one son, Donald Andrew, Jr., who is now associate professor of English at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is married to the former Miss Kirby Thompson, and they have two children, Donald Andrew, 3rd, and Philippa Kirby. 2. Arthur Ed- ward, born on December 8, 1906, in Hamden. He is executive vice president and general manager of the Brock-Hall Dairy. He married Norma Andrew, and they have an adopted son, Bennett Andrew Hall.
Henry F. Hall resides at 24 Norris Street in Hamden.
ALFRED VANSANT BODINE
President and treasurer of the Bodine Corporation of Bridge- port, Connecticut, which he founded in 1933, Mr. Bodine retired in 1958 as president of the National Machine Tool Builders Associa- tion. He twice served four consecutive terms as president of the Bridge- port Chamber of Commerce, and he served two terms as president of the Manufacturers Association of Connecticut. He is a former director of the National Association of Manufacturers, and in 1953 the Lehigh Club of New York presented him the honor cup award "in recognition of leadership in education, community betterment and industry."
Mr. Bodine was born in Lambertville, New Jersey, on October 15, 1894, the son of Lewis P. Bodine and of Eva (Parker) Bodine. His father was born in Stockton, New Jersey, on September 18, 1872, and was a banker all his life in Lambertville. He was a Mason, was superintendent of the Methodist Sunday School, and was active in all community enterprises. He died in 1919. Mr. Bodine's mother was born in Lambertville in 1873 and died in 1917. Mr. Bodine gradua- ted from Lambertville High School in 1911, and obtained the degree of Mechanical Engineer from Lehigh University in 1915. In 1946, Lehigh University conferred on Mr. Bodine the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering "in recognition of his outstanding leadership in his professional work and in the civic life of his community."
Mr. Bodine worked his way through college, and at the time of his graduation was a journeyman machinist. He became associated with the Winchester Repeating Arms Company of New Haven in 1915, and in 1917 he became a superintendent at the United States Arsenal at Watervliet, New York, supervising the tool rooms and the production of breech mechanisms for artillery. He left the arsenal
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in 1918 to become a consultant for Hunter Arms Company of Fulton, New York, and in 1919 he came to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as works manager of the Columbia Graphophone Company.
Vice president of the Dictaphone Corporation in 1923, Mr. Bo- dine joined Raybestos-Manhattan, Incorporated, as assistant to the president in 1928, and it was in 1933 that he bought the assets, plant and equipment of the defunct Anderson Die Machine Company, and formed the Bodine Corporation, with himself as president and treas- urer. In 1936, seeing the need for expansion, he purchased the plant of the Springfield Manufacturing Company, and the plant was fur- ther expanded in 1942. Principal products of the company are auto- matic dial type multiple spindle drilling, tapping, milling, screw in- serting and/or assembly machines.
In 1953 Mr. Bodine was a member of the first "Top Manage- ment" teams to be invited to Germany by the Berlin Chamber of Commerce to help with Germany's economic problems and to teach "Democracy in action." In 1958 he went on another invitation trip to Europe to confer with the European Council of Machine Tool Builders, whose problem is competition with Russia's cheap-labor products.
Mr. Bodine has played an active role in the community; he is chairman of the board of trustees of the University of Bridgeport; is president of the Connecticut Motor Club, a past president of the Rotary Club and of the Algonquin Club, and a past vice president of the Connecticut State Chamber of Commerce. He is a director of the Black Rock Bank and Trust Company, of the Bridgeport Young Men's Christian Association, the International Young Men's Christian Association, the Boys Clubs of America, the Bridgeport Boys Club, and the National Industrial Conference Board. Named a member of the Connecticut State Development Commission in 1953, and recently elected vice president of the Connecticut Development Credit Cor- poration, Mr. Bodine is a member of Tau Beta Pi and Pi Tau Sigma fraternities, and he enjoys social connections as a member of the Masons. A member of all York Rite bodies and a Thirty-second Degree member of the Scottish Rite, he holds membership in Pyramid Shrine Temple in Bridgeport and is a member of the local Masonic fun or- ganization, the Twilight Club, whose membership is always restricted to thirty. A Republican in politics, he attends religious worship as a member of the Presbyterian Church, is a past elder of the church. and has been a teacher of one of Bridgeport's largest non-sectarian Men's Bible Classes since 1926. Hunting and fishing are his favorite sports.
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Mr. Bodine was married in Lambertville, New Jersey, on May 30, 1917, to Ethel May Phillips, born in Lambertville on July 24, 1892, the daughter of Joseph Phillips and of Carolyn (Prall) Phil- lips. Her father was born near Lambertville on February 28, 1872, and was a farmer all his life. He died in 1953. Mrs. Bodine's mother was born in Lambertville in 1872 and died in 1954. Mrs. Bodine graduated from Lambertville High School in 1910, and received a business education at Rider College. She died on May 19, 1958.
Mr. and Mrs. Bodine had four children: 1. Alfred V., Jr., born in Troy, New York, on October 27, 1918, obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science in engineering at Lehigh University in 1940. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, and was killed in action on April 8, 1944, while flying a B-17. 2. Edward F., born in Bridgeport on April 23, 1921, graduated from Fairfield High School and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science in engineering at Lehigh University in 1942. During World War II, he served as a pilot with the rank of lieutenant in the Army Air Forces, and was stationed in the European Theater. He is married to Ruth O'Brien, and they have four children: Susan, Carol, William, and Elizabeth. He holds the post of vice president of the Bodine Corporation. 3. Betty, born in Bridgeport on September 18, 1924, graduated from Fairfield High School and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts at Mount Holyoke College in 1948. She is married to O. Kenneth Swain, and they reside in Stratford, Connecticut, with her father, Alfred V. Bodine. They have one son, Kenneth Victor, and one daughter, Susan. 4. Richard P., born in Bridgeport on November 2, 1926, graduated from Fairfield High School, and obtained the degree of Bachelor of Science in engineering at Lehigh University in 1948. A vice president of the Bodine Corporation, he served with the Army Air Forces during World War II. He is married to Barbara A. But- terfield, and they reside in Easton, Connecticut. They have three children: Richard P., Jr., David Butterfield, and Nancy.
ATWOOD COLLINS, II
Hartford lawyer Atwood Collins, II has to his credit a record of service of considerable importance in the field of international affairs. He is a veteran of service in the Military Intelligence in World War II. In his home city, he has been an effective worker in welfare causes.
A native of West Hartford. Mr. Collins was born on October 27, 1917, and is a son of F. Starr and Edith (Gibson) Collins. His father is a retired electrical engineer and inventor. His mother, who is also Conn. III-24
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living, was born in Salem, Massachusetts. Through his father, Mr. Collins is descended from Richard Lyman, one of the founders of Hartford. He attended Kingswood School in West Hartford, Yale University, where he took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1939, and Yale Law School, where he received his degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1942. In June of that year, he was admitted to practice before the Connecticut Bar.
Shortly afterwards, Mr. Collins entered the foreign service of the United States. After attending a school in the Department of State in economic welfare, he was assigned as vice consul to Pun- tarenas, Costa Rica. He later served as vice consul in the United States Embassy, in San Jose, Costa Rica. Thereafter, Mr. Collins entered the United States Army, and was assigned to Military Intelligence, in which he received a first lieutenant's commission. He served in both the American and European theaters. Following the war, he was able to put his legal training to effective use in one of the trials of the century-the hearings of high-ranking Nazi war criminals, held at Nuremberg. He himself interrogated former German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in connection with the preparation of United States Blue Book charges against Argentina for complicity with the Axis countries.
Between the end of the war and the time of the trials, Mr. Collins was back in this country as liaison officer to the United States delega- tion at the San Francisco Conference, which drafted the charter for the United Nations Organization.
Following his return to Hartford, Mr. Collins resumed his prac- tice of law, and has since had his offices at 36 Pearl Street. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Bar Association of the State of Connecticut, the Hartford Bar Association, and is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the United States.
Interested in the cause of higher education, he is a member of the boards of the University of Hartford, Hillyer College, and Hart- ford Seminary Foundation. He also serves on the executive committee of the board of Hillyer College and Hartford Seminary Foundation. He is a corporator of the Institute of Living, the Hartford Hospital, the American School for the Deaf, and the Connecticut Institute for the Blind. He is past president of the Mark Twain Memorial and of the Civitan Club of Hartford.
At New Orleans, Louisiana, on March 23, 1946, Atwood Collins, II, married Catherine Burns, daughter of Dr. Edgar and Helen (Whitacre) Burns. Mrs. Collins attended Sophie Newcomb College
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in New Orleans, following the completion of her preparatory studies at McGee's School for Girls, in that same city. She was Queen of the New Orleans Harlequins Club Ball of 1945. Mr. and Mrs. Collins. have a son, Atwood, III, who was born in Hartford on January 10, 1947.
PETER MACGREGOR FRASER
Coming to executive posts with The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company following an exceptional record in agency build- ing, Peter MacGregor Fraser advanced to the presidency of the or- ganization, and he is now chairman of its executive and finance com- mittees. He has long been known and respected in insurance men's circles, in which he has held office, and he has also been an official of a number of local organizations.
Mr. Fraser was born in East Orange, New Jersey, on March 10, 1891, the son of Scottish parents, Peter MacGregor and Martha (Morrison) Fraser. At an early age he accompanied his parents to Scotland when they made a return trip there. He received his early schooling in that country, attending Queen's Park School, but when his family again came to the United States, they settled in Brooklyn, New York, and it was there that he completed his education.
It was also in Brooklyn that Mr. Fraser received his first taste of the life insurance business when, at fifteen, he took a summer job with the Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York. He became so enthusiastic about his work that he never returned to formal school- ing. Although he was only an office boy, his interest in life insurance prompted him to try selling. Frequently, after hours, he set out after prospects armed only with a rate book and determination that more than offset his lack of experience.
In 1913 he entered field work full-time as an agent and agency supervisor for Mutual Life. Five years later, while still in his twenties, he formed a partnership with Paul Abry and won appointment as general agent for The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company in Brooklyn. In nine months the partnership produced a four hundred percent increase in business in its area. So began what the company's board of directors later cited as "the most exceptional record of agency building in the history of the company." Mr. Abry died in 1922, two years after the agency had moved to New York City. In the next five years the Fraser organization became by far the largest agency in the company, and in 1927 produced more than one-fifth of Connect- icnt Mutual's new business for the year. This record was surpassed
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in 1929 when the agency had in excess of one hundred and fifty mil- lion dollars' worth of insurance in force, or approximately fifteen percent of the company's total.
The following year Mr. Fraser was called to the home office at Hartford as vice president. Assuming duties on July I of that year, he brought to his new position the same enthusiasm which he had exercised so successfully in the field, contributing greatly to expansion of the Agency Department, with new offices in promising territories. In 1931, Mr. Fraser was elected to the board of directors, and in 1945 was elected president of the company. The year prior to his becoming president the company's total annual production was one hundred and eight million dollars and ten years later the new business totalled three hundred and twenty-seven million dollars annually.
While vice president, Mr. Fraser directed his energies into ex- panding company activities in the field of city, farm and ranch mort- gage loans. He spent much time in the field, and played a vital role in establishing an outstanding group of mortgage loan correspondents in key areas throughout the country. From 1933 to 1955 the Connect- icut Mutual's portfolio increased from sixty million to four hundred and sixteen million dollars.
It is in the field of investments that Mr. Fraser's leadership has been felt most strongly. The 3.60 percent earned by the Connecticut Mutual, after taxes, in 1954 was among the highest interest rates in the life insurance industry, and a direct result of his progressive in- vestment policies. The fifty-three percent increase in the dividend scale between 1943 and 1955 is due in no small part to Mr. Fraser's careful attention to investment policyholders' funds.
By 1955, investment operations had grown to such an extent that Mr. Fraser told the board of directors he felt he should devote more of his time and energies to this vital phase of company business. On February 25. 1955, he was elected chairman of the company, and upon his retirement as an officer of the company on May 17, 1957, was elected chairman of the executive and finance committees of the board.
Concurrent with his duties with The Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, Mr. Fraser has found time to fill positions of leadership in many other connections. These include insurance men's groups, business corporations, and civic and welfare connections, and are here listed chronologically. In 1928 he was elected president of the Life Underwriters Association of New York City. A twenty-five percent increase in membership was shown by the association during his term of office. In 1933 he was elected a member of the board of
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trustees of Hartford-Connecticut Trust Company, now the Connect- icut Bank and Trust Company. The following year he became a trustee of the Dime Savings Bank, and remained on the board until 1957, when he resigned. It was also in 1934 that he was elected a director of United Aircraft Corporation; and he was elected a director of Phoenix Fire and Connecticut Fire Insurance Companies in 1935. In the late 1930s he became increasingly active in welfare causes. Elected a director of the Newington Home for Crippled Children in 1938, he was named president of the home the following year. In 1941, he be- came chairman of the Community Chest War Fund, and also chair- man of British War Relief. He was later awarded the King's Medal for Service, in recognition of his work in this connection. He was chosen chairman of Hartford's Red Cross War Fund campaign in 1943.
Also in that year, he began service to his state as trustee of the Connecticut Public Expenditures Council, whose function was to render unbiased information to the public, help newly elected officials do their jobs, and offer nonpartisan and nonpolitical assistance. He also served on the Finance Committee of the State of Connecticut in 1943; and in 1945 he was appointed to the Connecticut State Prison Parole Board, a post from which he resigned in 1950.
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