Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Wohlers Hall [PAGE 6]

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to "do the best job of selling I ever did." He persuaded a reluctant Miss Jane Lindemann to marry him. The ceremony took place four days before her U of I graduation. After the brief honeymoon, Jane returned to campus for the graduation ceremony and Al returned to active duty. With the coming of World War II, ATs one year in the service stretched into six and a half, and he returned to civilian life as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Air Corps. He returned to Continental Casualty, where he had worked before the service, but soon left to join Youngberg-Carlson Co., where he became a corporate officer. But in 1961, Al struck out on his own and founded Albert H. Wohlers & Co., which eventually became one of the largest providers of insurance to professional associations. He sold the company in 1997 and retired from the business. The company succeeded for many reasons, but certainly one key was Al's creativity in designing coverage that met the needs of any individual group. Success also came because of a lot of hard work. In the early days of the company Al would bounce ideas off Jane and she remained active in Wohlers & Co., serving as corporate secretary until the business was sold. Both Al and Jane recalled evenings at home when the family, including daughters Susan and Nancy, sat around on the floor stuffing envelopes for an advertising campaign. Al once remarked that "The UI was the source of everything for us. I wouldn't have met Jane without the U of I. Without Jane I don't know what would have happened. We were a good team." And a good team they still are after fifty-nine years of marriage. They still consult on important matters and reach mutual decisions — like the decision to make a generous gift to the College of Commerce to renovate Commerce West.