HomeMy WebLinkAbout1959-11-03 Former Laundry Driver Parlays Insurance Idea To Become Chicago's Wealthiest Man (Palm Beach Post)3tLt'n6eH PoST .005
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au mai. SCAAP BOOK
isti5e1 Mae..
Ae,e. 44`i sy
iv\ Exii
ormer Laundry Driver
0 Become Chicavro's
A former laun uck driver
who parlayed a depression -ridden
insurance idea into a multi -million
dollar company, whose holdings in
elude a large tract of homesite
real estate in Paim Beach County,
was named by Fortune magazine
last week as the wealthiest man
in Chicago.
His name: John D. MacArthur.
His formula for Self-en-iployed
success: "Anyone in this great na-
tion can do the same if you're will-
ing to .start out working for less
money than someone else will pay
you, and live :modestly."
His position: Sole owner •and.
president of Bankers Life and Cas-
ualty Co.. Chicago, a firm. with
11 ssets which MacArthur wouldn't
sell today for $150,000,000.
But, things were not always thus
for the 'youngest son of a Presby-
terian minister,
He grew up in the Austin district
of Chicago and graduated from
Francis Scott Key elementary
school .--- his highest scholastic at-
tainment.
• His Palm Beach County holdings
include most of Lake Park (pur-
chased from the estate of the late
Harry Oakes), the former Winter
Golf Club now known as the North
'Palm BeachCountry Club, a sub-
stantial investment in the Village
of North Palm Beach development
and ownership of Layton's Park in
Riviera Beach.
Yet only 21 years ago tie had to
borrow $2,500 to save the tottering
Bankers 'Life and Casualty Co.
"from going under." It was at this
point in 1936 when TvIacArthur
came up . with the idea which
eventually made him a multimil
lionaire and the only Chicago man
listed in Fortune's compilation of
the 76 Americans worth $75 millicao
•or more.
"Nobody had any money in those
days," MacArthur told newsmen
interviewing him at bis frameeand-
stone house near Libertyville, Ill.,
"so I tried to sell insurance to a
man for just 'what he had in his
, pocket —a' dollar down and a dollar
a monthMacArthur and his wife, the 4
' ."
imer Catherine Hyland, comprisec
jthe entire sales and office staffsj
of both Bankers Life and the Mar I
-1
vette Life insurance Co.
"We both rang doorbells and took
in $5 or $6 a day apiece., We were
• going like crazy, but we could see
that the idea was sound," Mae
i
lArthur added.
Little by little, Bankers Life
grew under the drive of Mr. and
Mrs. MacArthur's faith in install-
ment insurance premiums. Today
the company has 3,300 salesmen,
five million policyholders and as-
sets which $150,000,000 couldn't
buy.
Typical of MacArthur's realistic
• approach to company management
is the modest $25,000 he draws as
"a working company president."
He pays his sales manager $75,000
a year, Although he owns all the
stock in his company. MacArthur
takes no dividends from it. Other
stock holdings give him annual di-
vidend, income of another. $25.000
a year.
Many of •the MacArthur's aieigh-
hors in Libertyville, -including Ad -
tat Stevenson7-10,e,-.Pa lot better"
than Chicago's wearthiest man.
He sakes all the ieaves•that need,
raking on their "AO-hcre property,
• JOHN D. MACARTHUR
and except for a woman who helps
with the heavy cleaning, Mrs.
MacArthur looks after the house
alone and does all the cooking.
The MacArtburs don't have a:
butler and they don't have a
chauffeur. His explanation of why
they don't employ either is typical
of the man: "I'd go crazy watch4j
ing some guy stand around waitincil
for me all the time!"
MacArthur takes a lot of prid1
and a lot of personal interest
his Palm Beach County real .es
tate holdings.
On recent trips here he could
seen constantly "in the field,"
amining plats, looking over blue
prints, talking with bull -dozer op-
erators, anti occasionally closing
his eyes to visualize what it will
all look like when streets, houses!
ad lawns have replaced the noise.!
dust and confusion of the clearing'
operations.