The Legacy Mr. Knapp Left for Metropolitan Life Insurance

Mr. Knapp did not live to see the move to 1 Madison Avenue, the fruition of his dream, in 1893. Yet before he died in September 1891 he did know that he and his associates had launched a truly great Life Insurance Company. His dynamic business sense had laid out a general plan of Departments so effective that it has been maintained in its essence even to this day. He had likewise seen that there were competent men at the helm.

He had arranged for the appointment of Haley Fiske as Vice-President. James M. Craig was, and in fact had been almost from the beginning, the Actuary of the Company. He was the small man who made the big decisions affecting financial stability, yet he was no solitary scholar. On occasion he could speak before a body of Agents with all the ardor of a football coach and send them bubbling with zeal into the Field.

Mr. Knapp had put George H. Gaston, who entered the Company in 1879, in charge of the Home Office and the Field Force as well. When the Industrial business brought over the 800 English Agents, it was Mr. Gaston\'s particular job to supervise their work and to acquaint them with American ways of business. As attention to Field activities absorbed more and more of Mr. Gaston\'s time, James S. Roberts came in to assist him and took over the supervision of the Home Office personnel, particularly that of the Industrial Audit Division.