t is with the utmost delight that I announce that the National Association of Independent Life Brokerage Agencies (NAILBA) has chosen Art Jetter as the recipient of the 2014 Douglas Mooers Award for Excellence, the brokerage industry’s most prestigious accolade. The award is bestowed on an individual who is most committed to furthering independent brokerage as a distribution system and who demonstrates an exemplary record of community service. Jetter was honored at the annual Mooers Award black tie dinner at this year’s NAILBA convention in Hollywood, FL.
Jetter began his insurance career as an agent for Guarantee Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1974. He started Art Jetter & Company in 1979, and the agency has grown to be one of the most recognizable in our industry—and not just because you can’t pick up a trade magazine anytime without his picture being in it. But that highlights one of the reasons he was a unanimous choice for this award—his industry service.
Jetter served on the NAILBA board of directors and as that organization’s chairman in 2000. He was chairman of the NAILBA PAC in 2006. He has served enthusiastically on a number of committees and is NAILBA’s representative on the board of ACORD.
In addition to his service for NAILBA, Jetter served as president of the National Association of Health Underwriters in 1991-1992, traveled extensively speaking to industry groups, lobbyists and legislators, and is certainly one of the people who contributed to the fall of Hillary-care. Where the hell was he a couple of years ago? But I digress. He was the recipient of the Harold R. Gordon Memorial Award, NAHU’s highest honor, in 1995, and received their Spirit of Freedom Award in 2000.
He was named the Mass Marketing Insurance Institute’s Person of the Year in 1993.
An active member of The Marketing Alliance, he received that group’s highest honor, The Billy Vogel Award, in the spring of 2014.
Serving both our industry and his community, he served on Nebraska Governor Nelson’s Blue Ribbon Health Care Commission and Representative Christensen’s Medicare Reform Advisory Committee, and he chaired the Nebraska Small Group Reform Plans Committee and the Nebraska Governor’s State Compact on Health Care Reform.
He also serves on the board of Wounded Warrior Family Support. He served his country as a Captain and Section Commander in the Vietnam War from 1968 to 1972, flying a Cobra gunship on more than a thousand missions and earning many medals and commendations, including the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star. He further served from 1978 to 1982 in the National Guard Medical Service Corps as a helicopter ambulance pilot.
In addition, Jetter donates his time and resources to almost a dozen other charitable causes and institutions. He has more industry designations than congressional members get paid vacations, and yet he’s a devoted husband, father and now grandfather. In wrapping up his speech announcing Jetter as this year’s award recipient, NAILBA Immediate Past Chairman Ray Phillips explained, “While we see an industry pillar and a war hero, they just see Grandpa.” Addressing the vast audience at the award dinner, Phillips concluded, “I am honored, humbled and thankful to be the person to present to you the 2014 Mooers Award winner—Art Jetter.”
On a personal note, one couldn’t ask for a better friend. Well done, Art, and thank you. [SPH]
