1970: The U.S. Congress enacts the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Our Board of Directors approves a 12-month contract with Teknekron Inc. to increase “effectiveness in the management of … claims by a different and more intensive utilization of computer technology.”

President Nixon signs the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, a policy of wage and price controls.

State Fund Insight, an in-house newspaper, launches in July.

1971: R.A. Young convenes the Executive Committee to develop an entrepreneurial plan. On Sept. 29, Young announces his own retirement and the Board’s selection of Robert F. Hassard as our new CEO.

1972: Hassard informs the Board that Phase II price controls of the Economic Stabilization Act has resulted in a partial rollback of a rate increase, “guaranteeing that the new schedule of rates will be inadequate.” In the next four years rates will rise 34.7 percent, but fail to catch up with inflation, benefit increases, and judicial expansion of liability.

We trade San Francisco property we own at Eleventh and Market streets for a future Home Office site at Ninth and Market. The Board authorizes the President to develop building plans.

1973: The Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. recommendation is adopted to overhaul us. The demise of Schedule Rating takes place.

An employee education and training academy, the State Fund Center for Organizational and Professional Growth, opens in its own quarters near the Oakland Airport. Marketing field units to service trade associations are opened in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento as part of a new Group Insurance program.

Gov. Ronald Reagan appoints a Task Force on Workmen’s Compensation, to review California’s part in the National Commission report on State Workmen’s Compensation Laws completed in 1972.

1974: The term “Workmen’s Compensation” is changed to “Workers’ Compensation.”

1975: Legislation establishes vocational rehabilitation for qualified workers. The Rehabilitation Unit is created.

Robert F. Hassard announces his retirement, effective March 31, 1976. During Hassard’s four years as President, our assets increase from $314 million to $517 million, though market share increases only fractionally, from 22.76 percent in 1971 to 22.92 percent in 1975. The increase in liability for compensation and medical benefits (including claims expense and reserve) is dramatic. In 1971 it was $253.6 million, in 1975 it hits $491.1 million, a 93 percent increase.

1976: E.A. Sandberg is named President.

1977: The newly constructed Home Office at 1275 Market St. is dedicated. The stepped-pyramid-shaped 16-story structure contains 325,000 square feet of office space.

1979: At 5 pm on Oct. 5 as employees are leaving for the day, a gunman enters our 16th floor executive offices. Holding Executive Secretary Chiyo Tashiro hostage in Vice President Jack Wieber’s office, the rambling and incoherent gunman fires shots through the office door, as well as randomly firing onto Market Street below. The standoff continues for 23 hours until San Francisco police rush into the office and find the gunman asleep. Tashiro is unharmed. On Oct. 9, the gunman’s body is found hanged in his jail cell.