Fred Drexler, Former Chairman of Industrial Indemnity, Dies

Fred Drexler, former chairman of Industrial Indemnity Company in San Francisco, died on Dec. 7. He was 88 years old.

Drexler was a leader in the Western insurance industry. He was founder of the California Workers’ Compensation Institute in 1964, and was named Insurance Man of the Year in Los Angeles in 1971 and in San Francisco in 1972. An authority on workers’ compensation insurance, Drexler established a national organization in the late 1960s that led to improved benefits for workers.

Drexler was named on three occasions by successive California insurance commissioners to head industry advisory committees. He was vice chairman of the California Insurance Guarantee Association, served twice as chairman of the then California Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, and as president of the Pacific Insurance and Surety Conference in 1967-68.

After Industrial Indemnity was acquired by Crum and Forster in 1968, Drexler served as a director of that national insurance holding company for 15 years.