Harold D. Anderson - 1950 to 2020. Claims executive veteran of Cambridge and Leonard Russo's TPAs believed to have suffered a stroke. He would have turned 70 December 28th.
By Lonce Lamonte - December 3, 2020
Harold D. Anderson, veteran claims and sales executive, and accomplished writer, died on November 11th 2020. It is understood he died of a stroke. He had recently moved from Los Angeles and was living in the Las Vegas area. He would have turned 70 years-old on December 28, 2020.
Harold was born on December 28, 1950 in Camden, Mississippi. The family lived in Chicago but it was a fluke Harold came to the light while his parents were on vacation. He was the third in what would turn out to be 11 offspring. Thus, he had serious roots in Chicago and then developed a strong connection with Los Angeles after he moved there in 1973.
He was educated at the University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana. He had a double major and was deeply ensconced in literature. It was here that his roots sprouted as a writer.
On Facebook he described his move to Los Angeles as a “great decision”. He wanted to become an actor and was chasing the dream when he met his future wife, Denise, while working as a bouncer at a nightclub. But, as fate would have it, while seeking a stable income and his ambition to marry Denise, he got a job as a field adjuster in liability and workers’ compensation investigation and settlement at Liberty Mutual Insurance Company.
Harold in 2011, from his Facebook page.
He was known by his initials HDA, which were derived from Harold David Anderson. After Liberty, he met the third-party-administrator powerhouse Leonard Russo and worked in Russo’s newly formed RTD (Rapid Transit District) unit. Eventually Harold was promoted to Area Vice President for the Western Region after Leonard Russo’s LJR Insurance Services acquired Adjustco.
Tess Foley wrote that “He always told us that his initials (HDA) stood for ‘Have Da Answers’”.
Tess worked with Harold when he was the vice-president at Cambridge Integrated Services Group after his first two stints with LJR. Today Tess is the president of Lien On Me, Inc. in Glendale. She further remarked, “We will all miss Harold very much! Such a beautiful character. One of a kind. I have his first two books and was looking forward to his third.”
Edward Martin Bridges commented on November 12th 2020 on Facebook, “… he was a brilliant man with a wonderful sense of humor…”
As told by Harold himself, Leonard Russo’s acquisition of Adjustco caused a lot of grief. It was ill-fated. Downsized, Harold landed a job of Assistant Vice-President of Galaher Settlements promoting structured settlements. But after the dust settled at Russo, he went back to LJR and remained as vice-president of claims until he joined Hertz Claims Management.
At Hertz, Harold wrote in 2018, he enjoyed his greatest personal success in writing TPA proposals for Hewlett Packard and the city and county of Los Angeles. Hertz Claims Management was purchased by Presidium, and through his sales effort they were successful in obtaining Continental Airlines and in renewing the city and county of Los Angeles.
Presidium was then purchased by Cambridge Integrated Services Group. With Cambridge, Harold went back to the operations side and was named Senior Vice President of the Western Region. He launched an internal training program that was very successful in training claims assistants into full workers’ compensation examiners.
From his experience with training, he founded Adjuster Academy with Cecelia Hernandez as the qualified instructor. Today, Cecelia is the Risk Manager of Dunn-Edwards Corporation. According to Harold’s words written in 2018, Cecelia was instrumental in their success. The business was sold in 2004.
Harold then returned to the world of business development for GAB (General Adjustment Bureau). But Leonard Russo again recruited him to join his newly named Acclamation Insurance Management Services (AIMS) as Senior Vice President of Business Development. But not long after that, a burning desire took him back to his roots in English literature. He took some time off to begin a writing career.
He published two fictional novels, one a thriller involving insurance claims fraud. It’s entitled Friendly Enterprise and is available on Amazon.
In 2012, Harold joined IW Care Connection, a nurse case management organization, as Vice President. Then, by 2018, he decided to retire from this realm of his career connected to claims, disability management, sales and all connected to insurance. He was dedicating himself to being a full-time writer.
He wrote to this writer in 2018 of “riding off into the sunset with my beautiful wife of nearly 40 years”.
A live stream of his memorial service took place from north Las Vegas on November 18th 2020. Harold D. Anderson is survived by his wife, Denise, his daughter Amber, and son Jason.
Cambridge reunion article of July 17th 2018. Shows photo of Harold Anderson with Kim Michaels. http://www.adjustercom.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=News&func=article_view&adj_article_id=2602
Harold's retirement article from June 19th 2018. "I, Harold David Anderson, Am Retiring From The Claims and Sales World..." http://www.adjustercom.com/modules.php?mop=modload&name=People&func=article_view&adj_article_id=2603
lonce@adjustercom.com; Lonce Lamonte, journalist and editor; all rights reserved by Lonce Lamonte and adjustercom.
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