Word: bloomington
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...most respects, Bloomington, Ill. (pop. 36,800), is a typical bustling Midwestern market city. The one thing that makes Bloomington a bit different from the run-of-the-mill county seat is the presence of its largest employer, the State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. This week State Farm will report that its premium income for the first half of this year was up nearly 11% to $281 million, and that in May the company signed up its seven millionth policyholder. All this handily helped State Farm hold its rank as the world's largest automobile insurance company...
Despite its big-time business. State Farm glories in the corn-and-cows atmosphere into which it was born in 1922. Though it operates in 50 states and Canada, the company has never considered moving its headquarters out of Bloomington, and all but one of its twelve directors still live in surrounding McLean County. State Farm executives have strong family ties: Board Chairman Adlai H. Rust, 70, and President Edward B. Rust, 43, are father and son, and Vice President Herbert L. Mecherle is the son of Founder George Jacob Mecherle. After World War II, when State Farm decided...
...Skate?" Small-town living is one of the traditions inherited from Founder Mecherle, who until his death in 1951 was known in Bloomington as "The Chief." A farmer whose family settled in McLean County in 1857, Mecherle started selling auto insurance to neighbors shortly after World War I, soon discovered that the companies whose policies he peddled either ignored farmers or charged them the same rates as city drivers, whose accident rate is higher. When Mecherle suggested changes, he was told: "If you don't like the way we do things, go start your own company...
THOMAS J. GOLDTHWAITE Bloomington...
...Bloomington...