Volume 79, Number 32 | January 13 – 19, 2010
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933
Peter J. Flanagan, a leader
in New York life insurance
Peter J. Flanagan, a Stuyvesant Town resident and for 24 years president and chief executive officer of the Life Insurance Council of New York, died Mon., Dec. 28, after a long illness, at the age of 79.
He took leadership of the council in 1977 when it was formed by the merger of the Association of New York State Life Insurance Companies and Life Companies of New York, and served until he retired in 1999.
“To a large degree, Peter Flanagan was the father of L.I.C.O.N.Y.,” said Thomas E. Workman, who succeeded him. “He was revered by hundreds of life insurance executives with whom he worked over the years,” Workman said. New York State governors and superintendents of the Insurance Department and their executive staffs also deeply respected Flanagan, as did legislative leaders during his service with the council, Workman said.
Peter Flanagan began his career as a group underwriter at The Equitable Company. He was vice president, general counsel and secretary of the United States Life Insurance Company, and later was general counsel of the Association of New York State Life Insurance Companies before the 1977 merger.
He was a 1953 graduate of Catholic University and a 1962 graduate of St. John’s University Law School after he served as a paratrooper during the Korean War.
His eight children — daughters Donna and Elizabeth, and sons Peter, Joseph, Patrick, Jeremy, Arthur and John — and 11 grandchildren survive.
The funeral was Sat., Jan. 2, at the Church of the Epiphany, 22nd St. and Second Ave. Andrett Funeral Home, 21st St. and Second Ave., was in charge of arrangements.
