Freeman, Robert Turner, 1918-2001

A notable pioneer of the life insurance industry in Africa, Robert Turner Freeman, Jr. was born on April 25, 1918 in New York City and graduated from Lincoln University in 1941. In 1945 he entered the life insurance industry as the vice-president and actuary for United Mutual Life Insurance, an African-American insurance company. Eleven years later he and two lawyer friends, Vertner W. Tandy, Jr. and David Jones, established the Gold Coast (later Ghana) Insurance Company. The Gold Coast Insurance Company recruited twenty-five insurance agents - the first in the colony - and gave them a two-week training course. By 1959, the company was 150 - strong and branch offices had been opened in other major Ghanaian cities. That same year, Freeman and Tandy also formed the Ghana General Insurance Company to sell automobile and fire insurance. It was the first domestic property and casualty company in Ghana. In 1962, the two flourishing companies were incorporated into Ghana's newly-formed State Insurance Corporation under Freeman's leadership. Freeman and his partner's innovative efforts in life insurance in Ghana drew interest from other African nations and Freeman's insurance career in Africa would include actuarial and legal consultation for insurance corporations in Liberia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, and South Africa among others. Freeman died on January 10, 2001 in Washington, D.C.