posted Aug 10, 2008 - 10:33:03am
When Jeannette Peterson began working at the V.W. Gould Agency, there wasn't a computer in sight.
No Internet. No faxes. No e-mail to check.
That was 50 years ago. Peterson and the Gould Agency have been through many changes together. Now Peterson, at the age of 66, is planning to retire.
Her boss is still in denial.
"We really hope that she won't retire," Vincent W. Gould III said. "We'll miss her."
But it appears she will. Currently, Peterson is working just a few days a week, but a retirement party was scheduled for Aug. 9 at Blackwater Inn in Astor.
Peterson joined the insurance agency in 1958 at the age of 16. She was a student at DeLand High School, in the diversified career technology course. At the Gould Agency, she took over for a graduating senior. Her job was assisting the secretaries in the insurance office.
"Mrs. Kathleen Gould asked my teacher, Mrs. Dumas, for more help when the other girl left," Peterson said. "I was able to walk over from the high school, which was on Clara Avenue at the time."
Vincent Gould III remembers working with Peterson since she started as a student.
"She's always been a very good worker, kind with the customers, very efficient and thorough," he said. "She hasn't changed a bit over the years."
Vincent Gould III's grandfather, Vincent W. Gould Sr., founded the insurance agency in 1907. Now he and his sons, Stephen and Vincent IV, both work there. Stephen's wife, Nancy, is the bookkeeper. She replaced Stephen's mother, Faye, who was the bookkeeper for many years before her retirement.
When one of the secretaries left in 1959, Peterson took the job. In the beginning, she typed policies, handled money, filed paperwork and worked directly with customers, while the agents sold policies.
"We did everything right here," Peterson said. "We typed all of the policies on carbon paper with a typewriter, since we wrote all of the policies, and there weren't copy machines."
There was no reason to go anywhere else.
"I didn't go off to college since we didn't have the money," she said. "I just stayed in town."
Peterson became a licensed insurance agent in 1990. Today, insurance policies are nearly paperless, which she calls "something totally different."
She has returned to customer service as she nears retirement, and makes plans to spend more time with her family. She and Lindsey have been married 45 years. They have two sons, Jeff of Huntsville, Ala., and Rusty of DeLand, and five grandchildren.
"The Gould Agency has been around for a little over 100 years," Peterson said, "and I've been here for half of it."
The agency has been on the corner of Woodland Boulevard and Rich Avenue since 1940. Peterson really isn't unusual among the staff members, many of whom have worked there for decades.
Aside from members of the Gould family and Peterson, three other employees have been on these staff for more than 25 years. Ingrid DeSellems joined the agency in 1965, while Diane Trapp and Carroll Phillips joined in 1972. John J. Lucko started in 1997, and Randy Ridgely is the newcomer, at about three and a half years. Another longtime employee, Karen Quilling, started back with the agency a few years ago, after taking time off to raise her children.
"We're really like a family here," DeSellems said. "You don't see that often anymore."
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Congratulations to Jeannette for a happy retirement!
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