Willis of New York Inc history

In 1841, Henry Willis applied for membership of Lloyd’s, where he started to broker insurance for the cargoes of commodities he sold on commission.

In 1843, Henry Dumas opened the Dumas and Wylie firm, which also brokered for Lloyd's.

One of these was the merger of two London-based insurers, Galbraith and Henderson, in 1848, which, together with the firm of Fletcher and Welton, would grow into the Stewart Wrightston group of insurers.

In 1863, another firm, formed by George Henry Smith, began doing business for Lloyd's.

In 1865, New Yorker David Parks Fackler founded one of the first actuarial firms in North America.

Manchester Unity was R. Watson & Sons’ first client in 1878.

In 1889, David Parks Fackler helped create the Actuarial Society of America, a predecessor of today’s Society of Actuaries.

The growing Willis company soon after merged its business with the Faber family, forming Willis Faber in 1898.

Additional access from Southern Boulevard, a major thoroughfare from the northeast, was opened in 1904.

Parks acquired the unused 1.43 acres for use as a public park in 1916.

At the end of the decade, Willis Faber became Willis Faber & Dumas Limited, after its merger with Dumas & Wylie in 1928.

In 1929, Corroon & Reynolds became the first insurance broker to obtain a listing on the New York stock exchange.

In 1931, J. H. Miller founded a construction bonds surety agency in California; that company took on the name Miller & Day in the following year.

The City of New York acquired the land for this Willis Avenue playground in 1963 through condemnation.

Corporation, in 1966, forming the Corroon & Black Corporation.

The playground was opened on July 27, 1967, to be jointly managed by the Board of Education and Parks.

In 1976, a new Willis headquarters — 10 Trinity Square — was purchased, and the company became publicly traded for the first time.

In 1987, Commissioner Stern changed its name from P.S. 49 Playground to Willis Playground.

Willis Corroon's transition was realized by 1993.

In 1995, the company took steps to reorganize its operations, reforming the company into five primary divisions: U.K. Retail, U.K. Wholesale, International, North American Retail, and Global Specialities.

The reorganization of the company helped lift profits by 1996.

While England continues to represent some 40 percent of the company's total revenues, North America accounts for approximately 50 percent of annual sales, which totaled £692 million (US$1.4 billion) in 1997.

As such, the company concluded an agreement with Germany's Jaspers Wuppesahl to increase Willis Corroon's position in the German company to 30 percent at the beginning of 1998, and to 44.6 percent by the end of 1998--with an option to build a majority position in the early years of the next century.