Chapter History
Iowa Chapter History
At noon, on January 25, 1952, a group of ten CPCUs met at the Hotel Savery in Des Moines for the purpose of forming the Iowa Chapter of the Society of Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU Society as of January, 1994). At 1 p.m. that day, the Constitutional Committee met to draw up a Constitution and By-Laws for the proposed Iowa Chapter. At 3 p.m., the first Board of Directors meeting was held.
From this modest beginning, over 70 years ago, this group of dedicated CPCUs has grown to more than 60 times its original size. In that first year, the small group held an “I-Day” with 209 people in attendance. The 1953 Insurance Industry Day drew 233 attendees.
Mary Lichty, our first woman member, joined the chapter in 1956 and was the only woman member for eleven years. Today, women make up over 30% of the chapter membership. In 2001, for the first time, the number of women exceeded the number of men as Iowa Chapter new designees.
By 1960, the membership of the Iowa Chapter had tripled. The third I-Day was sponsored jointly with the newly-formed Eastern Iowa Chapter. The “highlight” of the program was to be the induction of the new designees from both chapters. Unfortunately, from the Iowa Chapter’s point of view, Eastern Iowa took all the glory with two new designees. It would be thirteen years before the Iowa Chapter attempted another I-Day program.
In May of 1987, the Grinnell Sub-Chapter of the Iowa Chapter of CPCU was formed, with ten members. In it’s over twenty years of existence the membership has quadrupled to 40 currently. All of the Sub-Chapter members are employed by Grinnell Mutual Reinsurance. In October of 2007 a second sub-chapter was formed (North Central Iowa Sub-Chapter) based in Algona. It combined with the Iowa Chapter in full in 2025.
In two years, more than 100 new members were added to the Iowa Chapter. In 2007, there were a total of 121 added and in 2016 a total of 181 were new members. The reason for the large number of completers was not because of a demand for education, but rather that the Annual Meeting was in Hawaii in those 2 years. Most employers paid for the new CPCU and significant other to attend. It was said in 2018 that there will never be another Annual Meeting in Hawaii because of the tremendous costs to the various companies. In recent years the Iowa Chapter has always been near the top nationally in membership numbers.
The Iowa Chapter was organized on January 25, 1952. The first meeting was comprised of the ten people listed below.
- Charles V. Brooks - Chuck Brooks Insurance Agency
- Louis D. Burkhalter, Jr. - Burkhalter Insurance Agency
- Glenn H. Campbell - American Fore Group
- Don O. Jones - Wolverine Insurance Company
- Mike M. Knowles - Hartford Accident & Indemnity
- A. W. Mackaman - Jester & Sons Insurance Agency
- Lawrence W. Matthews - Witmer-Kauffman-Evans
- Charles Rupprecht - Hawkeye-Security Insurance Co.
- Charles J. Smith - Allied Agencies Inc.
- Jack Wheaton - New Amsterdam Casualty
