Attitudes and circumstances began changing in the church, though, around the middle of the twentieth century, according to Herman Bontrager ’72, the president and CEO of Goodville Mutual Casualty Company in New Holland, Pennsylvania. Several factors were at play. American society was becoming more litigious (a lament with continuing relevance), and while church-based mutual aid could replace a member’s car after an accident, settling a liability to an outside party could become very expensive very quickly.

Growing income disparity between church members also presented challenges to the mutual aid model. As some members grew wealthier, their desire not to burden others with the prospect of insuring (through mutual aid) expensive assets, or even a lack of confidence that the church would be able to do so, provided further incentive to purchase underwritten, commercial insurance.

(Underwriting – essentially, an assessment of risk – is a key difference between insurance and mutual aid. Under the mainstream insurance model, the underwriting process is used to set premium prices or even to reject coverage entirely. Mutual aid plans extend coverage to all members of a specified group – members of any church in a certain Mennonite conference, for example – without this same risk assessment process.)

The shift didn’t happen overnight. Goodville Mutual was founded by Mennonites in 1926, at a time when the church still held a generally skeptical view of insurance. Goodville had no formal affiliation with the church, operating from the start as a licensed, regulated insurance company offering underwritten policies to the general public. Over several decades, it began to expand from Pennsylvania to other states, often at the invitation of small, Mennonite-run mutual aid plans that wanted to add Goodville’s personal liability insurance to the property coverage they offered for homes, farms and businesses. They also wanted to offer Goodville’s auto insurance to their members, Bontrager told Crossroads.

By the 1950s, the idea of commercial insurance had gained wide enough acceptance within the Mennonite church that Mennonite-owned insurance brokerages began to appear. In 1952, a man named Emory Layman began selling Goodville home and auto policies in Harrisonburg, Virginia, through his Layman Insurance Agency. Ralph Weaver, class of ’53, founded a similar company – Weaver Insurance – in Waynesboro, Virginia, in 1958. And in Berlin, Ohio, Paul Hummel founded the Hummel Insurance Agency in 1957.

Changing times and mindsets led to the establishment of these businesses by members of a church that once looked on the entire insurance industry with suspicion. Continuing change in society and markets means that each of them now offers a far wider range of products and services than they did at the beginning. At the same time, they still maintain close ties to the church in general, and to EMU in particular, as multiple graduates work in management and other areas of each of these companies.

“One of the things we really try to emphasize is ‘Do the right thing for the client,’” said Stephen Cavanaugh ’93, the general manager of LD&B Insurance and Financial Services in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

(LD&B – Layman, Diener & Borntrager – is the corporate descendant of Layman Insurance Agency, which merged in 1992 with an insurance agency owned by Eugene Diener ’68 and Jonas Borntrager ’70. Today, LD&B is employee-owned.)

Building strong relationships with clients, Cavanaugh said, is certainly good business practice. But it’s also done in the service of LD&B’s goals to build and support community in the areas where it works. The company makes a practice of giving a fixed percentage of its gross revenues (not profits) to community organizations and gives its nearly 70 employees a free day each year to volunteer at a non-profit agency of their choice, along with $500 to support it. While LD&B “isn’t a Mennonite company,” said Diener, who serves as president, its values reflect those of the church, and were shaped by his and other alumni employees’ experiences at EMU.

“At EMU, I began to realize life is all about relationships,” said Adam Savanick ’06, an LD&B financial advisor. “I’m thankful for the opportunity to work for a firm that is committed to serving and improving the local community.”

Savanick’s job title, financial advisor, indicates one of the ways that these agencies have evolved over the years – offering financial planning services and investment products in addition to insurance policies. While LD&B has offered financial planning to some degree for years, Cavanaugh said, it has become a special focus of the company since he was hired two years ago. Because insurance and financial planning are so closely related (insurance protects assets, financial planning builds them), this diversification made sense for many companies like LD&B.

In Ohio, the Hummel Insurance Agency is now known as the Hummel Group, and financial services has become a large and important part of its business, said principal Barry Hummel ’74, son of the company’s founder. The same is the case at the company now known as Weaver Insurance and Financial Advisors, which began offering financial services in the late ‘90s, said Chad Hatter ’97.

“One thing that my education at EMU deeply instilled in me was the value of considering the long-term perspective,” said Joe Shenk ’02, a finance and investment adviser at Weaver. “[That’s] challenging to keep in mind, but if you let it guide your investment decisions, history shows that you will have better outcomes.”

Shenk also said that one of the things he values about working at Weaver is that it is an independent brokerage (as are LD&B and the Hummel Group) that doesn’t “promote proprietary products at the expense of what is good for clients.”

In something of an ironic twist when you take the long view, churches are also among these companies’ clients. At Weaver, Janna Zirkle ’75 specializes in selling property, liability, workers’ compensation and auto policies to congregations, as well as travel policies for church-sponsored trips abroad.

“Situations can and do arise that have the potential for devastating results,” said Zirkle. “Making church leaders aware of the possible risks … and providing suggestions to help minimize [them] is what I enjoy most.”

Changing times have also prompted Goodville to diversify its product offerings. (As an insurance company, Goodville actually develops policies, sets premiums and pays out claims; the other businesses mentioned in this article are brokerages that sell policies from various insurance companies, including Goodville.) In the ’90s, Bontrager said, it began packaging home and auto policies together to offer more competitive rates to customers – an innovation in the industry that’s aggressively marketed by larger insurance companies.

“It’s all about statistics and probability,” Bontrager said.

The more that risks are spread out, between different policy holders and different insurance coverages, the smaller the burden placed on each member. And the bigger an insurance company is, the more it can withstand volatility and unpredictability in the claims it will pay out (an example: the “derecho” storm in June 2012 became the single biggest loss event in Goodville history).

Today, commercial insurance has almost entirely replaced mutual aid (as defined in its purest sense) as the way that members of the Mennonite church protect their homes, cars and bank accounts against disaster. Along the way, new companies with ties to the church and EMU have sprung up, flourished and broadened in scope.

Still, Bontrager said, the lend-a-hand motivation behind mutual aid still thrives in a non-commercial way in Mennonite communities.

“The way we practice mutual aid has two facets: one is helping people in the community who fall into hard times. The second way it is to extend unconditional aid to people who might not be members of our church, who are in need,” Bontrager said. “That commitment is very much alive and well in our churches.”  — Andrew Jenner��’04

The world was stunned and outraged at the senseless, unprecedented assault on the one-room Amish school that took the lives of five children and wounded five others on Oct. 2, 2006. Forgiveness? So quickly and for such a heinous crime?

Donald Kraybill ’67

A symposium on "forgiveness" with a focus on understanding the Amish response will be held Friday, Oct. 10, 10-11:30 a.m. in Lehman Auditorium.

Two Lancaster area men who spoke on behalf of the Amish community in the aftermath of the tragedy and fielded hundreds of media queries will speak and lead a question and answer period.

Speakers

Donald B. Kraybill, distinguished professor of sociology at Elizabethtown (PA) College, and Herman Bontrager, president/CEO of Goodville Mutual Casualty Company, will reflect on Amish beliefs that prompted them to forgive, show compassion and respond graciously, despite their deep pain.

Dr. Kraybill has written 20 books, many on Amish life, including The Riddle of Amish Culture (1989/revised 2001).

He is a 1967 Bible and sociology graduate of EMU.

Herman Bontrager ’72

Bontrager, a 1972 alumnus, is secretary-treasurer of the National Committee for Amish Religious Freedom and was instrumental in establishing a fund for victims of the West Nickel Mines shooting.

The program will launch homecoming and parents weekend at EMU.

The Alumni Association will honor Kraybill as "alumnus of the year" and Bontrager will receive the annual "distinguished service" award during a worship service 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 12 in Lehman Auditorium.

The symposium is open to the public free of charge.

"WWLD: What Would Lloyd Do?", is a musical comedy written by and starring Ted Swartz ’89 and Trent Wagler ’02, and directed by Ingrid De Sanctis ’88). The play, with guest artist Jay Lapp and featuring music groups The Steel Wheels, Shekinah and Sons of the Day, will be presented 8 p.m. Fri. & Sat., Oct. 10-11 in Lehman Auditorium. Tickets, at $7.50 for adults and $5 for students, are available in advance at Red Front Super Market and at the door.

Ted Swartz (l.) and Trent Wagler will premiere a new theater piece, "WWLD (What Would Lloyd Do??), as part of homecoming weekend at EMU, Oct. 10-11. Photo by Jon Styer

A symposium, "Forgiveness in the Face of Tragedy: The Amish of Nickel Mines," will take place 10-11:30 a.m. Friday in Lehman Auditorium. Featured speakers will be Donald B. Kraybill ’67 and Herman Bontrager ’72, both of whom played key roles with the Amish community following the tragic shootings in a schoolhouse October, 2006. A question and answer period will follow.

Ken J. Nafziger, professor of music, will lead a worship celebration of song and scripture 10 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 12 in Lehman Auditorium. Recipients of the alumnus of the year award, distinguished service award and lifetime of service award will participate and be recognized in the service.

Reunions and Breakfast Meetings

Traditional homecoming features will include reunions at 3:30 p.m. Oct. 11 for graduating years ending in a "3" or "8," from 1963 to 2003. The "Jubilee Alumni," persons who attended EMU 50 years ago or more, will hold a luncheon and program at 11:30 a.m. that day in Campus Center Greeting Hall, where members of the class of 1958 will be formally inducted.

Breakfast meetings will be held Saturday morning for alumni and friends of the business and economics department; nursing, education, the sciences, athletics (Loyal Royals), Bible and religion (Haverim).

The language and literature department will host a reunion 9-10 a.m. for all staffers formerly associated with the ".

See the full Homecoming schedule for more detail.

Oakwood Gathering and Science Summit

Former residents of Oakwood residence hall are invited to gather near the site of this "once-beloved dormitory," which has been demolished to make way for a three-story, environmentally-friendly, 120-bed facility, at 11 a.m. Saturday to share stories and jog memories. Read more about the recent demolition of Oakwood and see the web-cam to track progress.

At a mini science "summit" 10 a.m. Saturday, EMU science faculty and students in environmental classes will share research projects and give updates on plans to renovate and expand the 40-year-old facility.

Arts and Athletics

An art exhibit featuring works by EMU visual arts and communication professors Barbara Fast, Cyndi Gusler ’93, Jerry Holsopple ’80 and Steven Johnson will be on display in the third floor gallery of Hartzler Library. Media will include mixed media fiber art, drawings, photography and digital images. A gallery talk and reception will be held 4 p.m. p.m. Saturday.

Varsity field hockey, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer games are scheduled on Saturday, preceded by a Loyal Royals "fun run" 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the EMU track.

The Paul R. Yoder, Sr., Memorial Golf Classic will be held Fri., Oct. 10 with start times at 7:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. at the Spotswood Country Club in Harrisonburg.

More Information

Special activities for children (kindergarten through fifth grade) and youth (grades 6 through 9) are scheduled at various times Saturday, and childcare for infants through age 5 will be provided during reunions and at other designated times.

During the weekend, a documentary video produced by alumnae Tiffany Horst ’07 and Carrie Keagy ’07, will be shown several times, featuring historic images and interviews that help to interpret the growth and changes that EMU has seen over the years while remaining true to its vision, according to Douglas J. Nyce ’86, director of alumi/parent relations.

The registration desk in the University Commons will be open 3-8 p.m. Fri., Oct. 10 and 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Sat., Oct. 11.

For more information, go to www.emu.edu/homecoming, call the alumni office at (540) 432-4245 or e-mail alumni@emu.edu.