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OBITUARY
STEWART M. LAMONT 1931-1960
Stewart M. LaMont, who became a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial So- ciety in 193 1, died on August 22, 1960 at the age of 91 in Berkeley, California.
Prior to his retirement in 1938, Mr. LaMont headed the Accident and Health Division of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in New York City. Previously he had been Assistant Secretary of the Indemnity Insurance Company of North America and was instrumental in organizing the Accident Department of that company.
Mr. LaMont was a past Vice President of the International Claim Associa- tion, a member of the Board of Governors of the Bureau of Accident and Health Underwriters, and chairman of the Hooper-Holmes Bureau for 15 years.
Mr. LaMont is survived by two daughters, Marguerite and Mrs. Russell A. Fairbain.
VICTOR MONTGOMERY 1891- 1960
Victor Montgomery, a founder, longtime president, chairman of the board of the Pacific Employers Group of insurance companies and a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society of America, died on May 2, 1960 at his home in Beverly Hills, California following an extended illness.
Mr. Montgomery was a dedicated public servant, serving as a past president of the Hollywood Bowl Association; director of Greater Los Angeles Plans
Incorporated; a treasurer and vice president of the Friends of Colleges of Claremont; vice president of Tennis Patrons Association of Southern Cali- fornia; a charter member of the Youth Tennis Foundation of Southern Cali- fornia; and a member of the executive committee of the Southern California Symphony Association.
He was born on June 2, 1891 in Albion, Nebraska, and educated at the University of California at Berkeley where he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1916.
Shortly after his graduation from college, Mr. Montgomery became an assistant actuary and later actuary for the California Insurance Department, a position which he held until 1921. He served as a deputy insurance com- missioner of California from 1921 until 1923.
Following this, he organized the Pacific Employers Insurance Company in 1923 which he developed from a small California company to one of the nation’s leading groups of casualty insurance companies operating in 43 states. In addition to his role in the Pacific Employers Group of insurance com- panies, comprising Pacific Employers Insurance Company, Meritplan Insur- ance Company, Allied Compensation Insurance Company, California Union Insurance Company and California Food Industry Insurance Company, Mr. Montgomery headed the Victor Montgomery General Agency Incorporated, Montgomery and Collins Incorporated, and Pacific General Agency Incor- porated in Seattle. He was also a director of the Security Title Insurancti Company.
Nationally recognized as a man who pioneered many of today’s progressive insurance ideas, Mr. Montgomery was founder-president of the Western In- surance Information Service, Incorporated, He was also a member of the California Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, the Bohemian Club in San Francisco and the Lake Arrowhead Yacht Club of which he was at one time the commodore.
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OBITUARY
FRANCIS SPENCER PERRYMAN 1896-1959
Francis Spencer Perryman died November 30, 1959 in Lancaster, Ohio while visiting a daughter. He was sixty-three years old.
Born December 3, 1896 in London, England, he was educated at Christ’s College, London and London University from which he received a B.Sc. degree. He entered the employ of the Royal Insurance Company in London in 1914. After serving as a Lieutenant in the British Army from 1915 to
1919, he resumed his career with the Royal Insurance Company and in 1922 became a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
He came to the United States in 1924 as Assistant Actuary of the casualty companies of the Royal-Globe Insurance Companies and later was elected Vice President and Actuary of those companies. In 1949 he became Assist- ant United States Manager, Vice President and Actuary of all of the com- panies of the Royal-Globe Insurance Companies operating in the United States. Mr. Perryman’s professional attainments were of the highest order. In addition to his Fellowship in the Institute of Actuaries, he was a Fellow and past President of the Casualty Actuarial Society and an Associate of the Society of Actuaries. He was also a member of the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the American Mathematical Society. At the time of his death he was Vice-Chairman of the ASTIN Section of the International Congress of Actuaries.
Francis Perryman was an actuary’s actuary and was respected by his col- leagues for his broad intellectual attainments and interests, his analytical ability and his calm and considered business judgment. His patience with detail without making it detrimental to the overall solution of a problem was one of his outstanding characteristics. He was strongly admired for his out- standing mathematical capabilities which he combined with a very practical approach to problems. Since he completely understood theory, he knew just how far one could go with short-cuts and what would be their consequences. For this reason he was popular with non-actuaries and was able to serve as liaison between them and actuaries.
At actuarial conferences Mr. Perryman was a mathematical doodler and his notes were often interspersed with the working of mathematical processes such as the expansion of determinants.
To his profession he left a legacy of papers in these Proceedings which reflected his disciplined mind and his wealth of experience. His mathematical papers on Credibility and Retrospective Rating are classics, and his non- mathematical papers were also of a fundamental nature which have provided
analysis. . . . In rereading his words today one is struck with the same sense of vague familiarity expressed by a habitue of Tin Pan Alley in hearing a musical composition of an old master. Some of his phrases have been unduly syncopated, there has been perhaps too much vapid repetition of his more catchy tunes, but the inspiration is manifest.”
The respect Mr. Perryman was accorded as an actuary was matched by the w,arm feelings which people had for him personally. Not an outgoing person, he was regarded by his associates as a delightful companion and among those who worked for him he was universally regarded with affection.
In one of his papers Mr. Perryman characterized himself: “Perhaps I should say a word here in anticipation of a type of criticism that may be levelled against the results given here, by some hasty critics, on the grounds that ten place logarithm tables and ready to use weekly annuity tables are unnecessary luxuries or give needless accuracy. I don’t regard the matter thus. The tables I give *are, I believe, useful additions to the tools of our profession: and it is a fitting example of the principle of division of labor for one person like myself, who is interested in these things and likes working them out, to undertake the work of preparing these tools and presenting them to the profession. If the few pleasant hours I spent in putting this paper together save members of the profession a few minutes work from time to time, then my labor was useful as well as pleas,ant.”
One of the things which is least known is that Mr. Perryman was an avid student of religion as well as mathematics. He was a member of the Church Club of New York, the St. George’s Society and the Pilgrims of the United States. He was formerly the efficient Treasurer and dedicated Church Warden of the Church of Saint James the Less in Scarsdale, New York.
His ability and personality made him one of the most influential persons in the actuarial development of fire and casualty insurance in this country in the past three decades. He will be missed by his contemporaries but his influence will be felt for years to come by the industry through those who never had the opportunity of meeting him but who will know him through his papers.
He is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Douglas R. Burke of Lancaster, Ohio and Mrs. John C. Hazelwood of Roanoke, Virginia, and by six grand- children.
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OBITUARY
WILLIAM F. ROEBER 1901-1960
William F. Roeber, a past Vice President of the Casualty Actuarial Society, died in Saratoga, California, at the age of 59 on March 21, 1960.
Mr. Roeber was born in Newark, New Jersey and after serving in the U. S. Infantry during World War I, graduated from the University of California in
1921. He began his insurance career as a payroll auditor with the California State Compensation Insurance Fund, and was subsequently special agent, resident branch manager and assistant comptroller before resigning in 1923 to accept a position in the actuarial department of the newly formed National Council on Compensation Insurance. He was made assistant actuary of the National Council in 1924, actuary in 1926, assistant manager in 1929 and general manager in 1930. He retired in 1950 and for a number of years resided in Manchester, Vermont, before moving to California.
Mr. Roeber was widely recognized as one of the leading actuaries on workmen’s compensation insurance in the United States. During his period of employment with the National Council he contributed greatly, in the in- fancy of workmen’s compensation insurance in this country, to the develop- ment of individual risk rating plans and the establishment of scientific prin- ciples for the making of workmen’s compensation rates.
At the time of his death Mr. Roeber was survived by his widow Reta; two sons, William and James, and by several grandchildren.
