TERRE HAUTE, Ind – A $1 million gift from the charitable trust of H. Peter Hudson will create an endowed professorship in the Insurance and Risk Management program at Indiana State University’s Scott College of Business.
ISU’s Board of Trustees voted Friday to acknowledge the gift by establishing the Dr. Larry Coleman/H. Peter Hudson Endowed Professorship of Insurance.
Before Hudson died last year, he wanted to honor Dr. Larry Coleman, who began ISU’s insurance program and involved Hudson and other insurance executives in the process. Hudson was Indiana Commissioner of Insurance from 1975-81 and was President/CEO of Monroe Guaranty.
“Pete Hudson and Larry Coleman provided the energy and vision to develop our nationally recognized Insurance and Risk Management Program here at Indiana State University,” said Jack Maynard, Interim Dean of the Scott College of Business. “Pete’s trust will provide the resources needed to continue to attract high quality faculty that are essential for the program to remain nationally known and serve the needs of our industry partners. We are eternally grateful to Pete for this gift.”
Hudson’s daughter Ann Hudson said her father, who is not an ISU alumnus, wanted the university’s Insurance and Risk Management program to continue to thrive.
“Dad and ISU were a match made in heaven,” she said. “Leaving a gift to endow this chair gave him peace that this important Hoosier treasure would ‘stay.’ Because of his deep sense of right and wrong, he would never have left this gift in his estate if he didn’t believe in the program to produce what he thought were ideal results. He loved Larry Coleman. Larry built an excellent program. So I love that these two men are honored together through this endowed chair.”
Said ISU president Deborah J. Curtis: “We’re grateful for Pete Hudson’s tremendously generous gift, which will fulfill his wishes for generations to come. His impact will live on through ISU’s Insurance and Risk Management program and the industry he loved.”
Hudson entered the insurance business in 1959 and was concerned about the lack of opportunities for students to learn about the business in college. In 1988, Coleman asked him to join ISU’s effort to develop a degree major in insurance and risk management. Within a few years, ISU’s Insurance and Risk Management Program was recognized as one of the top programs in the country.
Hudson served one Pacific tour duty in the Navy as an aviation structural mechanic. He later established The Hudson Company, which became the largest insurance agency in Northwest Indiana. Hudson spent countless hours raising money for causes, providing leadership, and creating civic organizations. He pushed the Indiana insurance industry toward higher ethical standards. He served as President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, advocating for industry reform.
Hudson retired in 2001. Service and philanthropy were the bedrocks of his faith. He chartered or served on local, regional, state and national boards.
“The (insurance) industry allowed him a way to have much more than he thought he ever would as that farm boy in North Carolina,” his daughter Julie Hudson said.