Bio: Fricke, M. D. William A. (1857 - 19??)

Contact: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Fricke

---Source: History of Marathon County Wisconsin and Representative Citizens, by Louis Marchetti, 1913.

Fricke, M. D. William (15 May 1857 - 19??)

WILLIAM A. FRICKE, M. D. who is vice president and general manager of the Great Northern Life Insurance Company of Wausau, Wis., has been prominently identified with insurance in this and other states, for many years of an exceptionally busy life. He was born May 15, 1857, in the city of New York, and his collegiate training prepared him for the professions of both law and medicine.

Dr. Fricke was a candidate for commissioner of insurance on the Republican ticket in the state of Wisconsin, in 1894, and was elected to succeed Commissioner Root in January, 1895, and in the following year was reelected. He was the first commissioner to adopt the Gain and Loss Exhibit, in 1895, and published such Exhibit for that year and for each year while in office, in the Wisconsin Reports of all companies transacting business in that state. He was appointed by the legislature of Wisconsin, in 1895, chairman of the commission to revise the insurance laws of the state. In this revision appeared the first demand for an annual apportionment and accounting of deferred dividend accumulations. In October, 1898, a few months before the conclusion of his term of office as insurance commissioner, he resigned to accept the New York metropolitan agency of the Union Central Life Insurance Company of Cincinnati. As a result of the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners held in Milwaukee, in September, 1898, which was arranged by, and of which he was vice president. Dr. Fricke, early in 1899, issued "Insurance: a Text-book." being a compilation of the essays delivered at the convention. He has also prepared and delivered many addresses on life insurance and supervision. All of these are of signal value, covering special points, and particular mention may be made of: "The Limitations of Assessment Life Insurance," "There is but One System of Life Insurance," "The Discretionary Powers of an Insurance Commissioner," and "Success in the Life Insurance Field." In 1902 he wrote an extensive treatise on "The Law of Distribution of Surplus Life Insurance Companies," which was widely discussed. At the National Convention of Insurance Commissioners in 1899, he was elected an honorary member. Dr. Fricke was president of the Wisconsin Society of New York, 1902-1903. In 1905 he resigned the New York general agency of the Union Central Life, and was engaged as counsel before the Wisconsin Legislative Insurance Committee in 1906 and 1907, and in 1909 was elected to the office mentioned in the opening paragraph. Dr. Fricke is also vice president and general manager of the Employers' Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wisconsin. Additionally he is a Fellow of the American Institute of Actuaries, and is also a Fellow of the American Association of Public Accountants.