1940: Management reports there are 349 employees on staff at the Home Office in San Francisco, and an additional 126 at the Branch Office in Los Angeles. The northern section is divided into eight districts, Chico, Fresno, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Rosa, and Stockton.
1941: With war breaking out in Europe, John C. Stirrat in May informs all State Fund employees that Gov. Culbert Olson has signed a law requiring them to take a loyalty oath to the United States. In December, four days before the attack on Pearl Harbor, he asks all employees for a 10-cent donation so Christmas cards and gifts can be sent to State Fund employees serving in the military.
1942: War-caused shortages lead to gas rationing, a dearth of replacement parts for our company automobiles, and a 40 mph speed limit.
1943: The California Farm Bureau Federation becomes one of the first associations to join our pioneering group insurance program, beginning a long-standing partnership in promoting agricultural safety in California that still endures today.
1944: Joseph J. Gallagher, who would become known as the “Mighty Warrior,” and a 30-year employee, becomes manager on April 1. In a memo he writes: “With the cooperation of each and every member … we can make the Fund what its founders intended – the finest organization of its kind in the world – a model for all insurance carriers.”
John C. Stirrat resigns as manager.
1945: Assembly Bill 1391, signed by Gov. Earl Warren, creates our Board of Directors, separates us from the Industrial Accident Commission and makes it a division within the Department of Industrial Relations. Years later, J. J. Gallagher calls the creation of the Board of Directors his “greatest single accomplishment.” Paul Scharrenberg is elected the first chairman.
1948: California is gripped by an electricity shortage, and J.J. Gallagher sends a Feb. 20 memo to staff reminding them to “turn off all unnecessary lights at lunch hour, and extinguish all lights promptly at closing time.”