A.W. "Bill" Bailey, Jr.

A.W. Bill Bailey, Jr. April 24, 1929 August 19, 2015 Arthur William "Bill" Bailey, Jr., of Waco, Texas, passed away Wednesday, August 19, 2015. Services will be 10:30 a.m., Monday, August 24, at The First Baptist Church of Waco with the Dr. Matt Snowden officiating. Burial will follow at Oakwood Cemetery. His visitation will be 5:00 7:00 p.m., Sunday, August 23, at Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Garden Room. Arthur William Bill Bailey, Jr., was born April 24, 1929, in Waco, Texas, the only child of Arthur W. Bailey and Luzera Mansell Bailey, a 1922 graduate of Baylor University. He was predeceased by his parents and his wife of almost 64 years, Roberta Bailey. Bill Bailey graduated from Waco High School in 1946 where he was on the Cheerleading Squad, the Debate and Tennis Teams. He played the #1 singles position his senior year, was ranked 3rd in Texas, and with his doubles partner was ranked 18th in the Junior Division National Tennis Championships. He also competed successfully throughout Texas in UIL Debate Tournaments. It was as a 15-year-old high school junior that he met the love of his lifetime and future wife, 14-year-old Roberta Hatch, at a Waco High dance. They dated throughout high school and college and married December 15, 1950. At Baylor he joined the debate team as a Speech major, finding his place among the nationally recognized debaters. His senior year he dropped from varsity play in order to enter Baylor Law School. A member of the Baylor Chamber of Commerce, he graduated with a B.A. and a law degree in 1951. Soon after college he switched his primary sporting enthusiasm to golf, playing throughout his lifetime at many of the finest courses in the United States and Scotland. He was licensed to practice law in 1952 and served during the Korean Conflict in the U.S. Air Force as a 1st Lieutenant in the Judge Advocates JAG Division. He was promoted to Captain in the USAF Reserves. Upon returning to Waco, instead of entering the practice of law, Bailey opted to go into the insurance business with his father, Arthur W. Bailey. Two years later in 1956, he established his own independent insurance agency, Bill Bailey Insurance Agency, now Bailey Insurance and Risk Management, Inc. He became a noted state and national leader in his profession, attending and speaking at conventions and testifying before U.S. Senate and House committees, as well as before the Federal Reserve Board, on behalf of the insurance industry. In 1969 he and a small number of experienced Texas insurance agents determined a need to teach advanced insurance topics to assure high standards of ethics and professionalism in the insurance industry. They established the Certified Insurance Counselors CIC program, which became the foundation of the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research, which he later served as Chairman of the Board of Governors. Today there are more than 32, 000 CIC designees. Certification programs are conducted in all fifty states with more than 150, 000 participants annually. Bailey served as the 1990-1991 President of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers Association of America IIABA, the premier association representing more than a quarter million agents/brokers and their employees in more than 38, 000 agency locations in all fifty states and Washington, D.C. He was recognized in 1992 for his leadership and advocacy in the Government Affairs Program when the Conference Room of the Capitol Hill association office in Washington, D.C., was dedicated and named in his honor the "A. William Bailey, Jr., Conference Room." He served as an IIABA Liaison to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He was awarded the IIABA Woodworth Memorial Award for Meritorious Service to the Insurance Profession, as well the Drex Foreman Award of the Independent Insurance Agents of Texas IIAT, the highest award conferred by each organization. He was Chairman Emeritus of Bailey Insurance and Risk Management, Inc., Chairman of Wilkirson-Hatch-Bailey Funeral Home, Inc., and a former Director, Executive Committee Member and Past Vice Chairman of Texas National Bank of Waco Compass Bank BBVA. Bailey served three terms as a Trustee, one term as Vice Chairman of the Board and three terms as Regent of Baylor University for a total of 18 years, during the presidencies of Abner McCall, H. H. Reynolds and Robert Sloan. He chaired the Presidential Succession Committee, 1994-1995. He was honored by the Baylor Alumni Association as a Distinguished Alumnus 1997 and was given the W. R. White Meritorious Service Award. Together with his wife he provided the funds for the Bill & Roberta Bailey Golf Center at Twin Rivers Golf Club. The Institute for Faith and Learning of Baylor's Truett Seminary established the Annual "Bill and Roberta Bailey Family" Lecture in Christian Ethics. The couple received the James Huckins, Pat Neff and Presidents Medallions from Baylor University. Bailey served as an Officer, Director and Executive Committee Member of the Waco Industrial Foundation, and as Member and Chairman of the Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center Board of Development. He was a Founder and Past President of the Waco Business League, and at various times served as President of the Greater Waco United Way, the Baylor-Waco and Baylor Bear Foundations, the Waco and Northwest Waco Rotary Clubs, the Waco YMCA, The Waco Camp Fire Girls, the Baylor Stadium Corporation and Ridgewood Country Club. In 2008, the Waco Public Schools honored him as a Distinguished Alumnus. Bailey was an active member of First Baptist Church of Waco, where through the years he served as Trustee, Deacon and Chairman of the Board of Deacons, Chairman of the FBC Building Renovation Solicitation Campaign and Chairman of the Finance Committee. He was the Founding Chairman of the First Baptist Church of Waco Foundation. He served as President of the McCall Sunday School Class and for several years as Co-Superintendent with his wife of the College Sunday School Department. He was frequently elected to serve as a messenger to the Annual Meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Bailey was preceded in death by his wife, Roberta Hatch Bailey, and daughter-in-law, Yvonne Mize Bailey. He is survived by three sons, Roy William Bailey and wife, Tina Ross Bailey, of Dallas, Texas, Wesley Wilkirson Bailey and wife, Rebecca Boyd Bailey, of Waco, and Hatch Mansell Bailey of Waco; four granddaughters, Erin Bailey Simpson and husband, Sam, Britain Bailey Peakes and husband, Matt, Kate Bailey McCunniff and husband, Bill, and Bridget Dodd Bailey; six grandsons, Boyd Murphy Bailey, Baxter Hatch Bailey, William Billy Ross Bailey, Barrett Mansell Bailey, Brennan Mize Bailey and wife, Laura, and Brooklin Ray Bailey; and four great-grandchildren, Wesley Thomas McCunniff, Juliet Lamb Simpson, John Bailey Simpson and Cooper Arthur Peakes. He is also survived by his niece Beverlyn Bowen Eckert and husband, Al, of Little Rock, Arkansas, and his nephew, Brad Bowen and wife, Sandra, of Colleyville, Texas. His grandsons will serve as pallbearers. Honorary pallbearers will be M. M. Key, J. D. Hudson and Bill Lewie. The family suggests the following memorials: First Baptist Church of Waco Endowment Fund, 500 Webster, Waco TX 76706; The Bill and Roberta Bailey Family Lecture Series in Christian Ethics at the George W. Truett Seminary, 1 Bear Place #97126, Waco TX 76798; Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Medical Center, 100 Hillcrest Medical Blvd, attn: Rhonda Luker, Waco TX 76712, and the Bill and Roberta Bailey Endowed Scholarship Fund at Baylor University, 1 Bear Place #97050, Waco, TX 76798-7050. "Bill Bailey's priority in life was to nurture his strong marriage and the close relationships within his family. His long list of accomplishments pale in comparison to his qualities as a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. His family will forever be influenced by his faith in Jesus, his unfailing optimism and good nature, his generosity, his gentleness and kindness, and his courage in facing his last months on earth. We will miss him very much, but we rejoice in knowing he is in the Presence of his Lord and Savior whom he sincerely worshiped and served all his life, a life well lived." The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our "Memorial Guestbook" at www.WHBfamily.com.