Diocese awarded $20M bond deal
November 28, 2006Thibodaux toy drive kicks into high gear
December 1, 2006
There was once a time when newspapers were delivered by kids on bikes, milk was brought to people’s doorsteps and insurance was sold by a man who went door-to-door.
Bruce Clark remembers those days. In fact, he was the man who went door-to-door.
Clark has been selling insurance since the late 1950s. A native of Mississippi, Clark was drawn to Houma at age 23 by the oilfield industry.
Not long after relocating to Southern Louisiana, Clark met a local girl named Marie Morello. After the two got married in 1957, he decided to transition from the oil industry into a more profitable business.
“After I got married I started working at the Terrebonne Motor Company for one of the finest guys you would ever want to meet, Richard Barker,” Clark boasts.
It wasn’t until a friend, working for the First National Life Insurance and Funeral Home, talked him into entering the insurance business that Clark decided to leave the car business. Clark then began selling life insurance policies and burial insurance door-to-door throughout Houma, and continued to do so for 8 1/2 years.
On Oct. 1, 1966, Clark joined the State Farm Insurance Company, becoming the second State Farm agent in the city of Houma.
Clark started his office in a small building on Main Street across from the old National Food Store.
“When I joined with State Farm they handed me some rate books and a few applications. I used an old wooden desk for a filing cabinet even though I didn’t have a single file,” Clark laughed.
However, he soon put his makeshift filing cabinet to work.
“Because of my experience and success at my other insurance company, I really hit the ground running,” he said. “I knew what I had to do and I did it.”
Clark explained that when he started with State Farm he had to go back to selling door-to-door to stir up business. He also placed a lot of business-to-business calls to until he established a larger clientele.
According to Clark, numerous clients from his former company eventually followed him to State Farm when he made the switch. “I have a lot of longevity with people here,” he said. “I really owe it to my friends and other people in the community for helping me get to where I am today.”
In 1969 Clark moved into an office on 6314 West Park Ave. where he is still located today.
Throughout Clark’s years in the insurance industry he has seen the field change in many ways, he said. The biggest change being the onset of new technology.
Clark has also seen the progression of the local economy. “The economy has really picked up,” he said. “People now look at much larger sizes of life insurance policies. And I also have a whole lot more home and auto insurance policies than I ever had before.”
Currently, Clark serves over 2,700 households with close to 7,000 policies enforced.
“State Farm has meant everything to me,” he said. “I have been able to live comfortably and develop a lot of meaningful friendships throughout the years.”
