UA’s Alabama Insurance Society Back in Business

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – If the recent inaugural meeting and banquet of the reconstituted Alabama Insurance Society is any indication, the organization is back and healthy after an extended period of dormancy. In its heyday during the 1970s, the Alabama Insurance Society, known as AIS, was one of the most active student organizations on The University of Alabama campus. But with the retirement in 1988 of the legendary Dr. John Bickley, professor of finance and insurance, the emphasis of the academic program in insurance changed, and, over time, the AIS became inactive.

Dr. William Rabel, the newly appointed John and Mary Louise Loftis Bickley Endowed Teaching Professor of Insurance & Financial Services, made the resurrection of the society one of his first priorities.

“When I arrived on campus, the most frequent messages I heard from alumni concerned the need to re-establish the Alabama Insurance Society,” said Rabel, a Fellow of the Life Management Institute and a Chartered Life Underwriter. “The AIS is important because it gives students leadership opportunities, students meet important people in the insurance industry, and they hear inspirational speakers. For the insurance industry, the AIS provides a way to meet potential interns and employees.”

The 70 attendees at the first meeting of the “new” AIS heard a keynote address by Robert Daniels, a former student president of the AIS in the 1970s and now the president of Burke-Daniels Co. Inc. which provides insurance products and services to the petroleum industry.

Daniels told the students in the audience that the AIS can play an important role in their futures and their careers. “There are six or seven guys here tonight who can offer you a job in the next nine or ten months,” he said. Continuing in the same vein, Daniels said, “If I boil down 33 years of joy in business to a few words, I would have to present it this way: The Alabama Insurance Society was truly the key to my success in business. The perfect career – 33 years of being paid well to have immense fun – all because of two years as a member of the Alabama Insurance Society.”

The inaugural meeting of the AIS also featured comments by a number of distinguished guests, the recognition of the corporate sponsors and the adoption of the bylaws and the election of officers.

Sponsors for the society are Burke-Daniels Co. Inc., Northwestern Mutual Financial Network of Alabama, State Farm Insurance Cos., BMS Group – Reinsurance Intermediaries, and American Mining Insurance Co.

Officers of the society are Carson Rockett, president; Alex Gould, vice president; Beth Hughey, secretary and Justin Bozeman, treasurer. Other members of the AIS board of directors are Jameson Carden, Meghann Holt and David Sendowski.