William A. Hutcheson

A complete Scot, from his clear mind and unyielding conscience to his friendliness and salty humor, was William Anderson Hutcheson. Born at Greenock on the Clyde, he was educated first at the Greenock Academy and then at Edinburgh in the famous Merchiston Castle School. There he distinguished himself in athletics—he was captain of the football team and gained interscholastic championships in the running high jump and in swimming—and in mathematics. By reason of the latter aptitude he resolved to pursue the uncommon and arduous career of an actuary. At nineteen he entered the head office of the Scottish Widows’ Fund and Life Assurance Society of Edinburgh as an apprentice. Starting at the bottom, he worked his way up through the various departments, passing various examinations for the Faculty of Actuaries in Scotland and finally becoming a Fellow both of the Scottish Faculty and the Institute of Actuaries in London. Thereafter his rise was rapid; he was transferred to the London office of the “Scottish Widows” and within a few years was appointed assistant to the leading actuary of the time in the employ of the London Assurance Corporation. Then, in 1899, at the age of 31, he was brought to New York by the Mutual Life Insurance Company as associate actuary. Passing the examination of the Actuarial Society of America, he became the first actuary in the world to become a Fellow by examination of the Scottish, English and American actuarial bodies. He became actuary of the Mutual in 1911; served as president of the American society from 1920 to 1922; and for a number of years acted as chairman of a committee to study and advise the direction of New York City’s several pension funds. Out of his rich background of knowledge and a strong interest in historical matters he delivered several addresses upon the evolution of life insurance, which rank as authoritative surveys. The first began with the Roman days, another dealt with the development of life insurance in the United States and another reviewed the origin of actuarial bodies in Great Britain and here.

Centurions respected these grave and distinguished achievements of “Hutch”; but it was as a singularly kindly friend with a boyish enthusiasm matched by an engaging shyness, that they knew and loved him. If the reputation of actuaries has sometimes stressed a crabbed and statistical approach to life, here was one of the most responsive and warm-hearted of friends, with a zest for companionship that made him one of the best loved of the Club’s members. The Club meant much to him and he frequented it regularly. He served on the Board of Management from 1928 to 1930 and was chairman of the House Committee in 1930. His fellows on the latter body remember with awe the skill with which he “broke down” the various items in the Club’s budget and the clarity with which he expounded the real meaning of amazing masses of figures. When any question of right or wrong arose, his comment was swift and went to the heart of the moral issue. For other subjects his touch was light and least of all did he present himself over-seriously; in describing his own brilliant and highly responsible career to a young Centurion, he once remarked: “I’m just a cross between a mortician and a bookie.” His Scotch accent, which never deserted him, added a special charm to his speech. He never became an American citizen, feeling in some way that to do so would be disloyal to his father. But he loved this country deeply, so much so that when offered in 1914 the high honor of Presidency of the Scottish society in which he began his career, he elected to remain in the United States. His interests covered a wide outlook, from boating (learned on the Clyde) to all the plantings and harvestings, the birds and woods amid which he passed his later years after his retirement to his New Jersey farm. Aside from his home he turned for “purring content” to the Century.

Geoffrey Parsons
1942 Century Memorials