History
of Abel Insurance Agency
1947
Chester Isaacson left the Huggins agency and
ventured out on his own, starting his agency from scratch in Coos Bay. Little is known about the agency during this
time period.
1953
Harry Abel Sr. was a logger who owned his own truck
and hauled logs for his stepfather in law, Carl Spalding. Log trucks at that time were equipped with
short log bunks and the loads were held in place by thos
1954
Deciding that logging was risky business he looked
for other work and landed a basic job in Chet Isaacson's insurance agency. After just 8 weeks of being on the job, Chet
Isaacson suffered a stroke and was unable to work and could barely speak. It left him paralyzed on his left side and
he never came back to work. The
responsibility of running the agency was delegated to Harry Abel and he truly
learned the business from the ground up.
The insurance companies were a great help by sending field
Harry ran the office for Chet and his wife Elsie
and eventually was given the opportunity to purchase a 25% interest in the
business. Chet and Elsie lived in a
beautiful log home on the west fork of the Allegany River and Harry would take
many trips to their home to discuss business with Chet. Communication was not easy. Eventually the name was changed to
Isaacson-Abel Insurance Agency and Harry was gradually able to purchase another
25% and later the remainder. The office
was first located on the
1964
Harry Abel Sr. purchased the Ed Publicover
Insurance Agency and merged his business together. Ed retired and never worked directly with the agency.
1967
Harry Abel Jr. and Francie McMullan were attending
SWOCC and Harry Jr. was struggling with the decision of what he wanted to do
with his life. Francie suggested that
he see his dad and ask about going into the insurance business. Harry Abel Sr. had told his wife Jean that
he would not push Harry Jr. into the insurance business but would welcome him
in if he asked. With Harry Jr.'s
question, Harry Sr. put a plan in motion to get Harry Jr. to college where he
could gain insurance understanding.
There were only 2 colleges known at that time that offered insurance
classes, one in New York City and one in San Francisco. Golden Gate college in San Francisco was
chosen
1968
The city of Coos Bay started to build a downtown
mall and Harry began building his own office building at 490 West Commercial.
The old building was eventually torn down to make room for a parking lot and
the Coos Bay Chamber of Commerce building.
1969
The new home of Isaacson-Abel Insurance Agency was
completed and became the headquarters of the operation. Besides Harry Abel Sr., there were 4 other employees
in the office at this time.
1970
Harry Abel Jr. graduated and joined the
agency. It was just about this time
that the name changed to Harry Abel Insurance Agency. Over the next few years, Harry Abel Jr. was learning the business
and things were quite static although Harry Sr. was
1975
Harry Abel Insurance Agency became a regular
corporation with Harry Abel Sr. owning 5% of the stock. This was a political move as he was serving
on the school board and there was some ruckus about a conflict of interest as
he was also writing the school's insurance.
By owning a minor portion of the agency he could continue in both
capacities.
1977
Still concerned about the future, Harry Sr. and
Harry Jr. talked with Jack Ward in Eugene about becoming part of his agency
which he had just sold to Marsh & McClennan and talks also were in progress
with Bender & Company in California, but in the end, it appeared that Harry
Abel Jr. would not emerge as a major owner and
1978
A deal was struck with Ron Swank whereby he would
purchase 50% of the agency from Harry Sr., and Harry Jr. would have 50% ownership
as well. Harry Sr. would take up
other interests (building his home in Bandon and partnership in Bay Area
1979
Harry Sr. came back to work in the agency for a year
and determined that he no longer wanted to be in the insurance business and
retired to spend more time running the racquetball club.
The name was changed to Abel & Swank
Insurance Managers to reflect Ron's ownership interest.
1980
Ron Swank had been traveling to Gold Beach to
service some of his Allstate accounts and began to spend more and more time in
that area. It started with a day trip,
then an over night trip, and then to an apartment and eventually a complete
move to the
1983
Lee Santos had an agency in the Brookings area
called Brookings-Harbor Insurance Agency and this agency was purchased by Abel
& Swank Insurance Managers and became the Harbor branch. This was a
strategic move as the long-range goal was to make the Curry county and Coos
county agencies equal in size with Harry Jr. owning and running the Coos county
agency and Ron Swank owning and running the Curry county operation. Later this idea did not seem to be a
positive move so all locations were kept as one entity.
1989
Harold McClellan had an agency in Florence and
Harold had been a close friend for some time. As a friend he offered
his agency to Abel & Swank
1991
Kevin Dean owned a small nonstandard auto agency,
which was purchased and merged into the Coos Bay office.
1993
Bob Ditton owned a small office in Florence and
sold that business to Abel & Swank and it was merged into the Florence
office.
1994
Ron Swank was speaking of retirement and plans
started to work out a buy-out arrangement.
As of May 1, 1994, Ron formally sold his portion of the business back to
the corporation and the corporation sold a minor portion to Debbie Krambeal who
was the manager of the Harbor office.
1996
Wendy Abel-Hatzel took over as the manager for the
Coos Bay office in the beginning of the year and by the end of the year was
operating as the business manager for the entire agency to help relieve Harry
of management duties.
1997
Abel & Swank celebrated their 50-year
anniversary in April with an open house at each office location. In August, the centralized processing center
was opened in Coos Bay and the other offices were designated as strictly sales
offices. Discussions began at the end of the year between Harry, Francie, Wendy
and Debbie regarding Debbie's position within the agency and the possibility of
further ownership.
1998
January 1, 1998, the Harbor office was sold to Debbie Krambeal and her stock retired. The ownership of Abel and Swank remained with Harry and Francie each at 45% and Wendy with 10%.
2000
The decision was made to change the business name to Abel Insurance Agency to reflect the Abel family ownership.
The formation of a processing center project, which was started in 1997, was a successful operational change as it helped to synchronize our processing procedure as well as free up our sales staff to concentrate on their clients needs. The processing center was located in a rented office near the Coos Bay sales office however that presented some difficulties in coordinating our IT services. It was apparent that the Processing Center would become more effective if it was located in the same building as the Coos Bay sales office. Unfortunately the Coos Bay sales office building would not accommodate all the processing staff members so plans for remodeling that building began. After reviewing the cost of remodeling the building it was decided that we would see what we could get if we purchased a building with adequate space. The former Security Bank building located just South of the Coos Bay city limits had been vacant for some time, and we found it was cost effective to purchase and slightly remodel that building rather than proceed with an expansion. The Security Bank building was purchased and the Coos Bay branch of Abel Insurance was moved to the new location on 7-1-2003. This has proved to be a very good move as it provided the agency better visibility to the public and opportunities for expansion as well.