James Albert Attwood Sr. (June 1, 1927 – October 31, 1989) was an American insurance executive.

Early life

Attwood was born on June 1, 1927, in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and graduated from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. His two sisters were Evelyn ( Attwood) Hansen and Beatrice ( Attwood) Smith.

Career

Attwood began his career as an actuary at

The Equitable Life Assurance Society The Equitable Life Assurance Society (Equitable Life), founded in 1762, is a life insurance company in the United Kingdom. The world's oldest mutual insurer, it pioneered age-based premiums based on mortality rate, laying "the framework for sci ...

, eventually serving as senior executive vice president and chief investment officer. In 1983, he joined the

Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York The Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York (also known as Mutual of New York or MONY) was the oldest continuous writer of insurance policies in the United States. Incorporated in 1842, it was headquartered at 1740 Broadway, before becoming a wh ...

, and became its chairman and chief executive before he retired in July 1988. In joining MONY, Attwood went "to the ninth-largest mutual insurance company from the third largest and will be moving three and a half blocks in Manhattan to his new headquarters." He was MONY's 14th chief executive in its 140-year history. While at MONY, he diversified the insurance company's holdings into "a modified life insurance company providing a broader range of financial services". In 1987, Richard S. Schweiker, then president of the American Council of Life Insurance (and former

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

from Pennsylvania and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services), said of him:

"Jim Attwood is a person who has a clear, set goal and works constantly toward it. He has certainly taken a very strong leadership role in the insurance industry."

He also served as a vice president of the

Society of Actuaries The Society of Actuaries (SOA) is a global professional organization for actuaries. It was founded in 1949 as the merger of two major actuarial organizations in the United States: the Actuarial Society of America and the American Institute of Act ...

, and was a member of the board of the

Committee for Economic Development The Committee for Economic Development of The Conference Board (CED) is an American nonprofit and nonpartisan public policy think tank. The board of trustees consist primarily of senior corporate executives from a range of U.S. industries an ...

and the

New York City Partnership The Partnership for New York City, formerly called the New York City Partnership, is a nonprofit membership organization consisting of a select group of nearly three hundred CEOs ("Partners") from New York City's top corporate, investment and entre ...

Fisk University Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1930, Fisk was the first Africa ...

and the

New York Theological Seminary The New York Theological Seminary (NYTS) is a private non-denominational Christian seminary in New York City. It was founded in 1900 as the Bible Teacher's College. In 2019, Rev. LaKeesha Walrond was appointed as the first woman and the first Af ...

Personal life

Attwood was married to Pauline, the director of the Bronxville Adult School. Together, they lived in

Bronxville, New York Bronxville is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States, located approximately north of Midtown Manhattan. It is part of the town of Eastchester. The village comprises one square mile (2.5 km2) of land in its entirety, a ...

and were the parents of: * James Albert Attwood Jr., an investment banker at

Goldman Sachs Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, H ...

who married Leslie Kim Williams. * Terry Jo Attwood, who married Thomas J. R. Beckmann, a son of Harry L. Beckmann, in 1986. * Dorothy Tyyne Attwood, who married William Albert Dupont, son of Ralph P. Dupont and Judge Antoinette L. Dupont, in 1983. * Katherine Attwood Attwood died of acute anemia at

New York Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center (previously known as New York Hospital or Old New York Hospital or City Hospital) is a research hospital in New York City. It is part of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and the teaching hospital for Cornell University. ...

on October 31, 1989.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Attwood, James A. 1927 births 1989 deaths Businesspeople from Detroit University of Michigan alumni 20th-century American businesspeople American chief executives of financial services companies