William Hall Breeden obituary

William Hall Breeden Obituary

Berkeley, Oregon, United States

March 30, 1925 - January 29, 2016

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William Hall Breeden obituary

William Hall Breeden Obituary

Mar 30, 1925 - Jan 29, 2016

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William Hall BreedenMarch 30, 1925 - October 29, 2016Salem - William "Bill" Hall Breeden, an Oregon insurance industry leader for many years, died on Saturday, October 29, surrounded by his loving family. He died at age 91 of natural causes. Bill was born on March 30, 1925, in Berkeley, California. He grew up in Palo Alto and graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1942. He majored in insurance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1947. In 1951, he married Harmony Frey on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. They were married for 64 years until her death in 2015. After working for the Kemper Group in Philadelphia and San Francisco, he and Harmony moved to Portland in 1951 where Bill was State Agent for the American Insurance Group. In 1958 he joined Charles W. Sexton as manager of the property insurance department. Sexton merged with international brokerage firm Alexander & Alexander in 1970 and in 1972 Bill was made Managing Vice President of A&A's Portland office. In 1982, he took early retirement from A&A to become President of Peninsula Excess Insurance Brokers in Monterey, California. When he retired in 1993, he and Harmony returned to Oregon to live at McNary Estates in Keizer. They moved to Capital Manor in Salem in 2007.Bill was past president of the Portland Association of Insurance Agents; past president of the Independent Agents Association of Oregon; past Director of the Oregon FAIR Plan; a member of the committee appointed by the Governor to rewrite the Oregon Insurance Code; and a member of the Governor's Advisory Committee in 1967. In 1970 he received the Arthur Eppstein Insurance Achievement Award, emblematic of Oregon's insurance man of the year. While in Monterey, he served on the Board of the Salvation Army.Bill had been a member of the Portland Golf Club and of the McNary Golf Club in Keizer. He was also a member of the University Club of Portland where he had twice served on the Board of Directors. An accomplished traditional jazz trumpet player, he was a regular at the Willamette Valley Jazz society jam sessions and at other jazz venues in the area.His wife, Harmony, preceded him in death in December 2015. He is survived by his loving family, daughter Harmony Paticoff (Gary) of Oak Park, California, son John of Bend, Oregon, granddaughters Megan and Mollie Paticoff, and Danielle Moss (Tyler), and two much-loved great-grandsons, Wyatt and Trevin Moss. Bill will be remembered for being a devoted husband, loving father and grandfather, his love of sports, a trumpet player extraordinaire, and certainly his great sense of humor. He will be missed terribly.There will be a celebration of Bill's life at the community center at Capital Manor in Salem on Wednesday, November 2 at 1pm. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests remembrances be made to the Salvation Army, the Willamette Valley Humane Society, or the Capital Manor Foundation.
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