by John Darer
Dale E. Currier, a friend and longtime structured settlement industry colleague from Buffalo, New York passed away Friday after what was described by his business partner as a "somewhat extended illness". Besides our businesses, Dale and I shared a love of boating and we often regaled each other with tales of times on the water. Like Bill Tocchi, another industry colleague from Connecticut, who passed away less than a month ago, Dale Currier was one of the gentlest souls you could ever meet. I cannot recall a time when I ever saw Dale mad and out of control. He was humble man with a great sense of humor who loved this blog and would often call me cracking up about something I wrote. He had a sense of right and wrong. Dale didn't have to be the biggest guy, or run the biggest company, but was very successful.
Although Dale was more experienced than me in the business, I was always flattered when he started calling me for advice. Whether the question was about computers, or just to have me quickly break down something technical related to the structured settlement business, he was not afraid to say he didn't know.
Dale was an active member of the National Structured Settlements Trade Association (NSSTA) for many years. He often attended NSSTA Annual and Regional Meetings. At a time when the industry was not only controlled by the defense side of the industry , but by the largest defense brokers, through the old non- plurality system of voting (that has thankfully been replaced), Dale and a caucus of other boutique firms got together and made sure that they had a voice in NSSTA and the result was seats on the Board for people like Joe Huver, Frank Sheerin and Don McNay. It began the evolution of change that was good for the industry at the time.
When a new competitor "forged" its way into Buffalo in 2003, others in the industry got all wound up by them, while Dale just chuckled as if it were a bunch of teenagers just being teenagers.
I'll will miss Dale very much.
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