The County’s oldest insurance brokerage, W. H. Williamson, founded in 1883, is changing hands.

After 59 years serving the community, Frank Wright and his wife, Arlene, who joined the company in 1981 after a teaching career at Pinecrest, are retiring. They have sold the business to the Allen Insurance Group, which plans to keep the Williamson name, staff, and location.

I sat down with Frank and Arlene as they reflected upon a long career on Main Street.

Frank started at W. H. Williamson right out of high school, at was then his aunt’s company. In his first year, he hitchhiked into work from his home in Waupoos.

“He was literally the new kid on the block,” noted Arlene, “The business people here in the town of Picton were quite a bit older—established people—and that was quite intimidating. But some of them were actually like mentors.”

Frank is proud to have been a modernizing force when he took over the business from his aunt. Thinking about change, he now sees himself as handing the business over to the next generation: “I’ve just been around too long! These new people will modernize it even more.”

A lot has changed over their tenure. “In 1965, the average house was insured for eight thousand dollars,” Frank pointed out. “But in my 59 years of being here, the Main Street of Picton has never looked better, because we’ve had people come in here with money.”

It is their personal connections that both Frank and Arlene relish, like the old-school farmer who never opened his mail because he preferred to deal in person, or the several international exchange students they have hosted, organized through the Rotary Club of Picton, who still stay in touch or come to visit.

Another reason Main Street looks so good, of course, is that Arlene Wright has for years personally attended to its planters with flowers and Christmas cheer.

Frank remembers baseball games against the army team before the base closed. “They didn’t always win!” he noted. He also remembers the time his team took on the Catholic Oblate Brothers on Waupoos Island: “We thought we’d show those docents how to play ball. Well, they showed us. They had a guy that was going through to be a priest, but he was a professional softballer. We couldn’t touch him! However, they treated us to a nice barbecue.”

By the nature of the business, Frank and Arlene have always been involved in the community. “Until a few years ago, we had as clients the high school, the County, the town of Picton, four townships, the hospital, Children’s Aid.” Along the way, there were also 30 years with the Santa Claus parade and 46 in Rotary. Frank has also been warden of St John’s church in Waupoos and president of the Chamber of Commerce.

Frank Wright’s view of his role as a broker emphasizes personal contact. He has relationships of trust with the CEOs of the insurance companies he deals with. Additionally, he has direct relationships with the clients he insures.

There are times, he notes, when he is on site before the fire department arrives. Indeed, Alexandra Bake tells of a catastrophic flood in the basement of Gilbert and Lighthall about a dozen years ago. First to arrive was Mr. Wright, not only with reassurance—“don’t worry, we’ll take care of you,” he repeated, over and over — but with immediate assistance, calling in recovery experts and equipment from Belleville even as the disaster was happening.

“He patted my shoulder and told me everything was going to be OK,” recalled Ms. Bake, who has remained a loyal client of W. H. Williamson. “Frank was there every step of the way, and, indeed, everything did end up OK.”