Ewing Carruthers, 93, Commercial Appeal Article

Article from THE COMMERCIAL APPEAL, Memphis on Tuesday, July 6, 2010
PHOTO BY MIKE BROWN

Ewing Carruthers, 93, still puts in a full week as an independent agent for Mass Mutual, for whom he has worked more than 70 years. He is a member of the Estate Planning Hall of Fame and a 55-year member of the Million Dollar Round Table.
Ewing Carruthers shows up at his office 5 1/2 days, each and every week.

Nothing remarkable about that -- except Carruthers is 93 years old and he has been at it a long time.

"I've been working since I was 12 years old," Carruthers said. "I enjoy it. It's rewarding. And it pays well."

Since 1939, Carruthers has sold insurance for Mass Mutual and recently was inducted into the Estate Planning Hall of Fame by the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils.

Born in 1917, he grew up in Evergreen in a house built by his grandparents at the corner of Evergreen and Autumn, near Overton Park where his grandfather, A.B. Carruthers, tethered a black bear named "Natch" to a tree, the beginning of what would later become the Memphis Zoo. Nearby is a small street named for his family of land developers who also had a hand in developing the Evergreen neighborhood.

"I quit being a Boy Scout to go to work selling papers on a paper route," he said, to help take care of his mother and two sisters when his family's money ran out during the Depression.

He did other jobs as well while in college, such as selling shoes for $3.85 a pair (he got to keep 10 percent), and eventually bought a Model T Ford that set him back $5. He sold that car several years later for $7.50.

Upon his graduation from Southwestern College, in 1939, Dr. William Atkinson, a psychology professor, guided him toward a career in the insurance industry.

"He said to me, 'You ask questions, you want answers,' " Carruthers said.

Carruthers signed a contract with Mass Mutual and never looked back. An independent operator with the company, he is the oldest agent and has sold its products for 71 years, an astonishing feat in this day of high turnover and rampant job dissatisfaction.

"When you're in business for yourself, the sky's the limit," he said.

An old black-and-white photo of his uncle, Louis Carruthers, is displayed in his office. A World War I aviator, owner of Carruthers Lumber Co. and a founder of the Memphis International Airport, Louis Carruthers introduced his nephew to Charles Lindbergh, sparking a lifelong love of flying.

"As a little boy he'd take me out to his flying club," Carruthers said. "I was just crazy about him."

Ewing Carruthers served during World War II as a Navy aviator, flying a Martin Mariner PBM-5 flying boat, then spent 10 years in the Reserves.

Flying became a lifelong passion and he owned several small planes himself, finally giving the hobby up only two years ago.

In 1953, he married a stewardess for Memphis-based Chicago and Southern Air Lines, which merged that same year with Delta Air Lines. He and Jane had four children -- daughters Jan and Tracy and sons Chip and Cage.

He passed his work ethic along to his children and encouraged the oldest, Jan, to take a route selling eggs in the neighborhood, an enterprise that would be handed down from sibling to sibling.

Their father taught them that "hard work pays off and it may be frustrating along the way, but if you just do the right thing, you will prevail," said son Cage Carruthers, 52, now a financial adviser with Wells Fargo Advisors.

Ewing and Jane recently sold their home and moved to Trezevant Manor, a move Carruthers says he's having trouble adjusting to because "they've got a routine over there and eat dinner at 5 o'clock while I'm still out here working."

For Ewing Carruthers, work has always been more than just earning an income.

He looks at selling insurance as helping out a friend; indeed, he considers his clients friends and feels fortunate to be in a position to not work with anyone he doesn't want to.

"If you had a friend with a problem and he came to you and said he wanted to take care of his family and asked how you could help, that's pretty nice, isn't it?" Carruthers said.

Carruthers said that he wouldn't trade places with anybody.

"I've got the world by the tail."

Life of achievement

In more than seven decades as an insurance agent, Ewing Carruthers has amassed a long list of honors.

They include being a 55-year member of the Million Dollar Round Table, president of the National Association of Estate Planners & Councils and a Hall of Fame inductee of the Tennessee Life Underwriters.

He has even written a book about his career and life in the insurance business, titled "A Way of Life."

The Commercial Appeal