Many alumni and friends were able to join us way back in April 1997 for a gala celebration of the 50th anniversary of our Risk Management and Insurance (RMI) major at The University of Mississippi. In truth, few of us realized that the program had been in existence that long until I made a misstatement about the age of the program and Bill Bryson, a 1949 graduate who majored in insurance, called me on it. In searching the archives at Ole Miss, I soon found that Bill’s long-term memory still is intact because the insurance major first appears in the 1947-48 annual catalog. The first insurance courses were taught even earlier, first surfacing in the 1933-34 catalog. Based upon surveys by Business Insurance magazine we now appear to have the third oldest, continuously operating RMI program in the U.S.

To be sure, the insurance curriculum in 1947-48 was modest indeed. The four true insurance courses were titled General Insurance; Life Insurance and Income Protection; Fire, Marine and Inland Marine Insurance; and Casualty Insurance and Surety Bonding. The remaining courses represented a mixture of economics, finance, and business law. Lamar Maxwell recalls that a high percentage of the early insurance majors were independent agents’ children who planned to return to their parents’ agencies upon graduation. The post-WWII expansion also was in full bloom and Lamar recalls that few commercial risks wanted to place more than $10,000 of coverage with any one company, so insurance graduates also had their pick of jobs with insurers seeking to expand operations in Mississippi.

The first full-time insurance professor at Ole Miss was Ralph William Yuill and, according to Bill Bryson, Mr. Yuill had some life insurance experience and he taught all four of the insurance courses. Bill “Mouse” Stevenson remembered that Mr. Yuill was a retired Army officer whose lectures were a mite dry. A couple of years after graduation, Bill took some CPCU exams and found that the questions were very familiar. He lamented that he did not know enough to order CPCU materials a few years earlier, while taking Mr. Yuill’s courses!

When Mr. Yuill retired in 1965, he was succeeded by another long-time professor, Mr. Francis Swan “Frank” Scott. Alumni recall that students referred to him as “New York” Scott because he regaled them with stories of investing in New York City real estate. Apparently, Professor Scott was a successful investor because he reportedly was the only faculty member who could afford to trade in his car for a shiny new one every two years (faculty notice--and remember--these things).

In the mid-1970s, Dr. Rufus Jones of the Ole Miss development office developed the concept of an Insurance Excellence Program for which private funds would be raised to provide additional support. Among his early fund-raising recruits were Bill Bryson and Perrin Caldwell. In the late 1970s, Lamar Maxwell recalls that Professors Robert Khayat and Don Frugé, now the former Ole Miss Chancellor and Associate Chancellor for University Advancement, respectively, enlisted alumni to raise funds for a permanently endowed Center for Insurance Excellence. Tom Joyner joined Maxwell, Bryson, and Caldwell, among others, in this successful effort. After Mr. Scott retired, Dr. Joe Murrey, a former Arkansas State professor, accepted the newly created position of Director of the Center in 1979.

Prior to Dr. Murrey’s arrival, the Mu Chapter of Gamma Iota Sigma collegiate insurance society was established at Ole Miss in October 1976. Former chapter president Preston Derivaux recalled that Dr. Murrey was regarded as one of the most accessible, friendly professors on the business school faculty and he made special efforts to encourage students to actively support the Mu chapter. These efforts culminated in Ole Miss hosting the national convention of Gamma Iota Sigma in 1980, which students found to be a particularly invigorating experience.

In 1987, Dr. Mary Ann Boose joined the faculty as an assistant professor who taught both insurance courses and statistics. Mary Ann served as the faculty advisor to Gamma Iota Sigma and many insurance alumni who graduated in the late 1980s and early 1990s recall her efforts on their behalf

Without a doubt, 1995 proved to be a year of enormous change for the insurance program. Dr. Murrey retired in May and relocated to his home state of Arkansas. At the same time, Dr. Boose resigned to become head of the insurance department at Indiana State University. The business school dean, Dr. Randy Boxx, sought additional funding from insurance alumni and they responded so that an endowed professorship was created. In June 1995, after nine years on The University of Georgia faculty, I was recruited to Ole Miss and named Holder of the Professorship of Insurance. One year later, Dr. Katherine Daigle assumed Dr. Boose’s former position and taught RMI courses through the spring of 1999.

With these changes in faculty some dramatic shifts took place. The curriculum was revised to focus more intensively on commercial insurance and corporate risk management. A student internship program was instituted and virtually all students seeking such experience have received paid internships. The number of RMI majors grew rapidly from only 19 in 1995 to a high of over 150 in 2007. Nearly all RMI graduates enter some aspect of the insurance business. .

One of the most important developments since 1995 has been the formation and active participation of the Ole Miss Insurance Advisory Board. The Board consists of 25 industry practitioners with a wide variety of backgrounds. Under the leadership of the first two chairpersons, Tom Quaka and Van Hedges, the Board made enormous progress in improving industry-university communication, student job and internship placement, and private funding of the RMI program. The Board continues to be very involved, meeting with Ole Miss faculty and staff quarterly, helping to organize a wide variety of special events, and monitoring financial reports pertaining to the program.

Perhaps the most visible activity of the Board has been the planning, development, and hosting of the Ole Miss Insurance Symposium each year. The Symposium attracts nationally known speakers, recently including the CEOs of Travelers, ACE USA, Republic Group, and the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America, among others. Another key accomplishment has been the sextupling of the endowment. During this process, Dean Boxx announced that the Jack W. and Gwenette P. Robertson Chair of Insurance had been officially established at Ole Miss and yours truly was appointed the first holder of the Chair in February 1998. Subsequently, the Board began raising funds for an endowment to hire a second, full-time RMI professor. With partial funding in place, Dr. Karen Epermanis was hired to fill this new position in 2001. “Dr. E”, a former risk manager, brought a unique blend of scholarly and industry knowledge to the classroom. She attracted many new majors to the program prior to leaving Ole Miss in 2006.

The Liberto-King Professorship ultimately became fully endowed and Dr. Andre Liebenberg was named the first holder of the Professorship in August 2006. Dr. Liebenberg brought his deep background in commercial insurance and extensive research skills to the program. He is known to students as a very rigorous, but deeply engaged and concerned instructor. The Board has raised additional annual funding to support a Project Coordinator to run the many special events and fund-raising activities of the RMI program. In 2007, Ole Miss grad Camille Mitchell was named to the position and she has rapidly become the face of the RMI program to many of our supporters in the industry.

From the student perspective, our most important activity has become the annual Ole Miss Insurance Careers Days, normally held on the week of St. Valentine’s Day. Normally, between 30 and 35 employers attend each year. Most conduct individual interviews the morning before an afternoon career fair or the next day. This event starts many of our RMI students on the road to internships or entry-level placements, at the same time attracting new students to the major.

With the tremendous changes over the past 14 years, the future of the RMI program at Ole Miss could not be brighter. We have grown from 19 majors in 1995 to over 120 and measurable performance statistics indicate ever-increasing quality among the majors. The faculty also has become quite visible nationally with their research appearing in the top scholarly RMI journals and their leadership of the major scholarly societies in the discipline. For example, Ole Miss RMI faculty have served as presidents of the American Risk and Insurance Association, Risk Theory Society, and Southern Risk and Insurance Association, and one professor currently serves on the board of the latter organization. Rather than slowing down at age 62, the Ole Miss RMI program continues to pick up the pace in its mission to build opportunities for its students and an outstanding source of future employees for the RMI industry.

Larry A. Cox

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