You are reading a page from The Fraternal American Table, American Insurance Union (1926)
Part of the American Term Life Insurance History Project
Term Life Insurance

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THE LATE DAVID PARKS FACKLER
 David Parks Fackler, an active member of
the Fraternal Actuarial Association, died on
October 30, 1924, at the age of eighty-three
years.   Born at Kempsville, Virginia, on
April 4, 1841, Mr. Fackler had, by virtue
of his age, his distinguished achievements
and his many years of active service, become
entitled to be regarded as the dean of the
Actuarial profession in America.
 After graduating from the College of the
City of New York in 1859, he spent several
years in the office of the Mutual Life Insur-
ance Company as assistant to the late Shep-
pard Romans.  Together with Mr. Homans,
Emory McClintock, and others, he was one
of that older generation of actuaries which
laid the scientific foundations for the struc-
ture of American Life Insurance.  In 1865,
at the age of twenty-four, he opened his
office as a Consulting Actuary and he estab-
lished over an uninterrupted period of fifty-
nine years a record of continuous independ-
ent service in the actuarial profession which
has never been paralleled and which is not
likely to be soon repeated.
  On March 7, 1889, Mr. Fackler issued the
circular letter which resulted in the forma-
tion of the Actuarial Society of America,
and in 1891, he succeeded Mr. Homans as the
second President of that organization.  He
enjoyed the rare distinction of election to
corresponding membership in the Institute
of Actuaries.  He was at various times con-


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suited by the Federal and State Govern-/
ments, and during his long career he prob--
/"ably served as advisor to a larger numbers\
Jof life insurance companies than any other||y
Mr. Fackler was keenly interested in/.
|'\fraternal insurance. His vision of the pos-
jisibilities of beneficent and lasting fraternal
f/accomplishment was clearly and definitely|
jexpressed and his sympathy with the aims|
isand ambitions of fraternalism could not be>/;
,questioned. Uncompromising, however, in|
matters of principle, he never permitted his|
sympathy with the ends to be accomplished
ylto interfere with a strong insistence that the||
means to those ends must meet the tests of|y.
economic and actuarial soundness,fjji
,N'1It was his fixed conviction that fraternalp
societies should avoid plans of insurance|\
-pwhich involve the accumulation of large re-%j
/jserves and should in every way possible em-'
.phasize the protective as distinguished fromyj
the investment features of the Knights of'
Columbus, whose advisor he had been for
many years, is typically representative of3
sis views as to the plans which may beste
/|be followed by fraternal societies. .yJ
/Of late years Mr. Fackler had been lessy<|
active and opportunity for the younger men
° ecome acquainted with him was limited.<\1'
To those, however, who were privileged to\
W/\know him in a personal way, there will re-S?5
|ymain an abiding sense of loss of a valued and°/j
«|helpful friendship,j
|                        EDWARD B. FACKLER, Actuary                        
                                  New York City                                    
              Edward Bathurst Fackler, (A.B., LL.B., F.A.S.), Con-                       
            suiting Actuary, was born in New York City, October                               
            13th, 1879.  He was graduated A.B. at Yale in 19CO. and                                 
            shortly thereafter entered the office of his father, David                             
            Parks Fackler.  He was admitted to the New York                         
            Bar in 1905.  In 19fli7, he became a partner with his                        
            father in  the  firm of Fackler & Fackler,  Consulting-                             
            Actuaries.  The firm name afterward became Fackler,                             
            F'ackler & Breiby,  and since the death of Mr.  D.  P.                     
            Fackler in 1S24. the business, founded in 1865, has been
            continued as Fackler & Breiby at ofl Broad Street, New   
            York.  He is the author of "Notes on Life Insurance,"          
            now in its second edition, co-author with his partner,
     of  the  standard  reference  work  (4  volumes)  "Illinois      OAfS                 
      Standard  Tables,"  and  of  "Complete  Surrender  Value   
      Ready Reckoner," and has contributed several actuarial  
       papers.   He  is  a  Fellow  of  the  Actuarial  Society  of
     America,  a  charter  member  of  the  Casualty Actuarial     
Society, and a member of the Fraternal Actuarial Asso-     
 elation, of which he was President for two years,