Remembering ARIAS Founder, Insurance Law Leader, T. Richard Kennedy

A great friend and a true catalyst in the insurance and reinsurance communities, Dick Kennedy was a leader in the field of insurance law and in reinsurance dispute arbitration.

Thomas Richard Kennedy (1935-2019), founder of the ARIAS, the national reinsurance and insurance arbitration society, passed away peacefully at the Avow Hospice House, in Naples, Florida on February 14, 2019 surrounded by his family.  The cause was complications due to Parkinson’s Disease.

He was wholly  committed to developing and maintaining attorney professionalism and independence, writing and presenting extensively on the subjects and serving as Chair of the ABA’s Standing Committee on Professional Discipline and NYSBA’s Standing Committee on Attorney Professionalism.

As Senior Partner of Werner & Kennedy and General Counsel to American Skandia, Inc.  he was a pre-eminent member of the insurance bar throughout his 45-year career, serving as Chair of the American Bar Association Tort & Insurance Practice, Chair of the New York State Bar Association Insurance Section, President of the U.S. Chapter of the International Association of Insurance Law and member of the Federation of Insurance & Corporate Counsel and International Association of Insurance Counsel.

He was founder and the first Chair of the Board of Directors of ARIAS (AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society), the leading insurance and reinsurance dispute resolution organization in the U.S. He was honored for his vision in creating the Society, assembling a stellar group of leaders in their respective fields to realize the dream of setting standards and procedures for arbitrators, streamlining the process of settlement and saving great litigation stresses and costs for company participants. He organized and led a group that included Ed Rondepierre, Ron Jacks, Dan Schmidt, Mark Hurwitz, Charles Foss, Charles Havens, Susan Mack, Robert Mangino, Charles Niles and for some years after, the finest legal practitioners in the field.  A life long friend, he named this writer as group’s first executive director and worked closely to grow the group to 300 members worldwide in its first two years. As a member of the Board of AIDA, the worldwide insurance law group, he interfaced with leaders from 38 countries and spread the concept of arbitration well beyond US borders.

Thomas Richard Kennedy was born on April 12, 1935 in Clayville, N.Y.  He graduated from West Winfield Central School, class of 1953.   After high school, he enlisted in the U.S. Army where he attended the Army Language School in Monterey, CA, completing a course in Russian and spending a year and a half in Germany monitoring Soviet troop movements during the Cold War.   He received an Honorable Discharge and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Villanova University in 1961 and a LL.B at Syracuse University in 1964 where he was a member of both the Board of Editors of the Law Review and the National Moot Court team.

He loved golf, sailing, skiing, music and summering on Fishers Island.   His first and foremost love was for his family who adored him.  He and his wife Catherine celebrated 56 years of marriage in August.  He is survived by his wife, Catherine, their daughters: Anne Marie Scott, Carolyn Cullen and Maureen Alves (Vinicius), their sons: Michael (Jacqueline), Joseph and Stephen (Karen), and thirteen grandchildren: Emma and Lyla Scott; Nicole, Caitlin, Darcy and Riley Kennedy; Sarah, Ian and Meredith Cullen; Isabelle, Andrew and William Kennedy; and Thomas Kennedy Alves. He is also survived by several nieces, nephews and many friends. He was preceded in death by his  sisters Jane and Marion and his granddaughter, Hope.

He is revered among friends for his dry sense of humor, his love of the good life in many of its incarnations, and for his kind, warm and caring spirit, returned to him by a devoted caregiver, Anna Quiroz who cared for him with kindness and love for the last 3 years of his life.

A memorial is planned for April in New York.

Dick would be the first to discourage praise for his work or public displays of affection for him, but these are due many times over by those of us who knew him, worked and played with him and owe him the debt of friendship and loyalty for all he did for so many.

May he rest in peace.