Fred Drexler Obituary

Drexler, Fred
Fred Drexler, former California insurance executive and civic leader in San Francisco and Marin County, died in San Francisco on December 7, 2003. He was 88 years old. A leader in the Western insurance industry, he was founder of the California Workers Compensation Institute in 1964, and was named Insurance Man of the Year in Los Angeles in 1971 and in San Francisco in 1972. He graduated from University of Redlands in 1936 as did his late wife, Jane Cunningham Drexler. Upon their marriage they established their home in Mill Valley, Marin County. In 2002 he moved to San Francisco. After a career of 30 years with San Francisco-based Industrial Indemnity Company he retired in 1976 as chairman, to devote his succeeding years to public service positions. Drexler served as a trustee of California Pacific Medical Center for 24 years and as a trustee of the Buck Institute for Age Research in Marin since 1989. He also was chairman of the Chicago-based Institute for Philosophical Research for 18 years. After six years as editor of the Mill Valley Record, he was co-founder of the Marin Community Chest in 1943, while serving as an executive at the wartime Marinship shipyard in Sausalito. Active in Boy Scout work since 1948, he served for 14 years on the National Executive Board, Boy Scouts of America. A graduate in law from Golden Gate University in San Francisco, Drexler served as chairman of its board in 1968-70. He was a director of Montgomery Street Income Securities, a mutual bond fund, for 17 years and was its chairman 1988-91.