Julian Price

"Julian Price" (1867–1946) was an insurance executive who made his fortune in the first part of the twentieth century by developing the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, at the time the largest corporation in North Carolina.

Childhood to midlife

Price was born on November 25, 1867, in Richmond, Virginia. His parents were Joseph Jones Price and Margaret (Hill) Price. He was educated in the Virginia public schools. Price married Ethel Clay, the daughter of Henry De Bois Feuillet Clay, in Meehum River, Virginia on August 22, 1897. They had two children: Kathleen Marshall, who married Joseph McKinley Bryan, and Ralph Clay Price. ["PRICE, Julian," "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography," Volume XXXIV (New York: James T. White & Company, 1948) page 430]

Adult and career

Price entered the insurance field as an insurance salesman solicitor from 1905 to 1909 in Norfolk, Virginia for the Greensboro Life Insurance Company of North Carolina. He became their secretary and later agency manager of that company from 1909 until 1912. In 1912 it merged with the Security Life & Annuity Company of Greensboro and became the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company of Raleigh, North Carolina. Price was their vice president as well as their agency manager of the new organization which moved to Greensboro, North Carolina.

In 1912 it absorbed Security Life and Annuity Company and Greensboro Life Insurance Company. Under Price's leadership its sales increased to almost $10 million by 1919, when he was then promoted to its president. The Board of Directors remarked "The record is a success unparalleled in the history of southern life insurance companies and one beyond our most sanguine expectations." [ [http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/71/Jefferson-Pilot-Corporation.html Jefferson-Pilot Corporation - Company Profile Information] ] Price continued in that position until 1946 and thereafter was chairman of the board of directors until his death. ["The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography," page 431]

In 1923 Jefferson Standard Life Insurance built a 17 story skyscraper. This building was the tallest building in North Carolina until 1929. [ [http://www.landmarkscommission.org/surveys&rjohnston.htm Architectural Descriptions of North Carolina's tallest buildings] ] After the company moved into its new headquarters under the direction of Julian Price and his "top-notch skills" in salesmenship it increased its sales to $300 million before the Great Depression. Price became one of the most respected Chief Executive Officers in the United States during the 1930s and '40s. His company was a national leader in the insurance industry. [ [http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/71/Jefferson-Pilot-Corporation.html Background Information on Jefferson-Pilot Corporation] ]

In 1987 Pilot Life Insurance Company no longer existed when Jefferson Standard Life Insurance, who had the controlling interest in it under the directorship of Price since 1930, [ [http://giving.unc.edu/distprofs/price.htm The Julian Price Professorship] ] merged that company into themselves. [ [http://www.news-record.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070702/NEWSREC0101/70701010/-1/NEWSREC0201 News & Record article 2 July 2007] ] The newly formed Fortune 500 Jefferson-Pilot Life Insurance Company was then one of the nation's largest shareholder-owned life insurance companies. In 2006 it was bought out by Lincoln National Corporation. [ [http://www.termlifeamerica.com/jeffersonpilot.html Jefferson-Pilot now part of The Lincoln Financial Group] ] [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/10/AR2005101001561.html Lincoln National to Buy Jefferson-Pilot] ]

Death and after

Julian Price died in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina on October 25, 1946 in an automobile accident. His son took over leadership of Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company for the next four years as its president. [Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. Volume 5, P-S. Edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.] The insurance company that Julian Price developed ultimately became a Fortune 500 company.

The convert|4200|acre|km2 of the Julian Price Memorial Park acquired by Price in the 1930s and '40s for his own recreational use is directly adjacent to the convert|3500|acre|km2 of Moses H. Cone Memorial Park obtained by Moses H. Cone. Together they are now the largest developed recreational areas for public use on the Blue Ridge Parkway. [ [http://www.blueridgeheritage.com/NaturalHeritage/NationalParks/BlueRidgeParkway/julianpricememorialpark.html Blue Ridge National Historic area - Julian Price Memorial Park] ] The man made lake within Julian Price Memorial Park is called Price Lake and they were both developed out in Price's honor for public use.

Positions and posts

Julian Price was employed by, associated with, or a member of the following: ["Who Was Who in America. A companion biographical reference work to Who's Who in America," Volume 2, 1943-1950 (Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1963), page 443.]

* Member Life Insurance Association of America.
* Director of the Mooresville Mills of North Carolina.
* Member of the International Acquaintance League.
* Member of Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
* Member of the Institute of Life Insurance Association.
* Member of the Masonic order (Knight Templar, Shriner).
* Member of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents.
* Member of the Greensboro Merchants and Manufacturers.
* Member of the Rotary Club of Greensboro, North Carolina.
* Member of the National Council of National Economic League.
* Member of the Congressional Country Club of Washington, D.C.
* Member of Country and Sedgefield Country Clubs of Greensboro.
* President of Atlantic and Yadkin Railway from 1919 until his death.
* Headed North Carolina state salary and wage commission 1924-28.
* Solicitor for American Tobacco Company from 1903 to about 1905.
* Southern Railway 1887-1903 as telegraph operator and ticket agent.
* Solicitor for Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company 1905 - 1909.
* President of the Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company from 1919.
* Chief Executive Officer/Director Pilot Life Insurance Company from 1919.

* Trustee of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University.
* Member / Director Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and City Council.
* Trustee for Richardson Memorial Hospital of Greensboro, North Carolina.
* Member of the national advisory committee of 1939 New York World's Fair.
* President Federal Home Loan Bank of Winston-Salem, North Carolina 1932-33.

References

Bibliography

*"The Jefferson Standard Story," Jeffersonian, August 1982, pp. 14-17.
*"International Directory of Company Histories," Vol. 29. St. James Press, 1999.
*Weidner, David, "Unchartered Waters," Greensboro News & Record, March 9, 1997, p. E1.
*Still, John T., "Jefferson-Pilot and Parsons Group Settle Litigation," PR Newswire, April 5, 1993.
*Marshall, Kyle, "JP Reaches Outside for Next CEO," News & Observer, August 12, 1992, Bus. Sec.
*"Greensboro's Home to Major Insurance Companies," Greensboro News & Record, September 16, 1990, p. 40.
*Catanoso, Justin, "Insurer Continues Toward Lofty Goal," Greensboro News & Record, February 25, 1997, p. A1.
*Coleman, Kathleen, "The Pilot at JP Communications," Business Journal-Charlotte, November 13, 1989, Sec. 1, p. 8.
*Fox, James F., "75 Years: 1907 to 1982; Jefferson Standard Life Insurance Company, Greensboro, N.C.: Jefferson-Pilot Corp."
*"Dictionary of North Carolina Biography." Volume 5, P-S. Edited by William S. Powell. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
*Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 1: January, 1946-July, 1949. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1949.
*Biography Index. A cumulative index to biographical material in books and magazines. Volume 2: August, 1949-August, 1952. New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1953.

Persondata
NAME=Julian Price
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Price
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Insurance Executive
DATE OF BIRTH=25 November, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH=Richmond, Virginia
DATE OF DEATH=25 October, 1946
PLACE OF DEATH=North Wilkesboro, North Carolina