Actuary

John Wesley Wood Jr., a retired actuary for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, died of pneumonia Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 75 and lived in Towson. Born in Long Island City, N.Y., he was educated in New York City public schools, graduating from high school in 1950. After he graduated from Princeton University with the Class of 1954, he moved to Salisbury, where he worked at the Wayne Pump Co. He was a member of the Community Players in Salisbury, holding the lead in many productions, including Henry VIII and The Devil's Disciple.

Trustees overseeing Baltimore's troubled $1.5 billion police and fire pension system should hire an attorney and other experts to determine whether their past decisions have breached fiduciary responsibilities to retirees, fire union officials cautioned Tuesday. Speaking to the board, Thomas Lowman, an actuary hired by unions to examine pension finances, said: "The plan is severely underfunded. You have to believe that someone is going to ask how we got here." Trustees were "drawing a big bull's-eye" on themselves, Lowman said, by failing to ask the city to pay the full cost of pension obligations amid concern that the price was unaffordable.

Allen Ramsey Beard, a retired actuary and World War II veteran, died of complications from Parkinson's disease Wednesday at his Riderwood home. He was 81. Mr. Beard was born in Little Rock, Ark., and raised in Augusta, Ark. He left during his senior year at the University of Arkansas to enlist in the Air Force. He served in southern Italy with the 15th Air Force as a bombardier aboard B-17 Flying Fortresses. He was discharged in 1945 with the rank of captain. He remained active in the Air Force Reserve and had attained the rank of major at the time of his retirement.

Baltimore City Council President Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake wants to tap a prominent business-group leader to head a commission examining the city's troubled fire and police pension system. Donald C. Fry, president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee, has accepted an invitation from Rawlings-Blake and City Councilman William H. Cole IV to lead an effort to review a retirement program whose ballooning costs have created what both call a "fiscal crisis." "You want to make sure that these funds are sustainable and you do have enough money to support them," said Fry, a former Harford County state senator who is also heading a panel to award slot-machine licenses in Maryland.

William Seabrooke Cooper, a former actuary and Southeast Baltimore real estate salesman, died of lung cancer Friday at Mercy Medical Center. He was 67 and lived in Upper Fells Point. He was a Social Security Administration actuary in Woodlawn for more than 30 years before his retirement in the 1990s. Beginning in the 1970s, he also sold Fells Point real estate. Born in Baltimore and raised in Phoebus, Va., he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in physics from Morehouse College in Atlanta.

Paul J. Scheel Sr., a retired president and longtime employee of the former Baltimore-based insurance giant United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., died of a heart attack Thursday in his Lutherville home. He was 72. Mr. Scheel started with USF&G in 1959 in the actuarial department after graduating from Loyola College in Maryland with a degree in mathematics. In May 1971, he was named associate actuary and, six months later, was named vice president. He was elected the company's president and chief operating officer in 1982.

So the other day I was waiting at a stoplight in my car, which is nice, but, like most cars today, boring. For example, when you turn the key, it starts. Every time! It has one of those modern, quiet, dependable engines. At least I assume it has an engine: I've never had a reason to look under the hood. For all I know, there's a small alien spacecraft in there, or Vice President Cheney. Cars were different back when I got my first driver's license, just after the invention of roads. In those days, cars were powered by an insane system called "internal combustion," which involved gasoline actually exploding inside the engine.

John Richard "Dick" Nagel, an Army veteran and actuary for 21 years, died of supranuclear palsy Aug. 4 at his Charlottesville, Va., home. The longtime Baltimore resident was 77. Mr. Nagel was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., where he graduated from high school in 1950. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and actuarial science from Canisius College in 1954. During the Korean War, he served in the Army in New York and New Jersey. After being discharged, he married the former Peggy White in Connecticut and then moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his family for 40 years.

Trustees overseeing Baltimore's troubled $1.5 billion police and fire pension system should hire an attorney and other experts to determine whether their past decisions have breached fiduciary responsibilities to retirees, fire union officials cautioned Tuesday. Speaking to the board, Thomas Lowman, an actuary hired by unions to examine pension finances, said: "The plan is severely underfunded. You have to believe that someone is going to ask how we got here." Trustees were "drawing a big bull's-eye" on themselves, Lowman said, by failing to ask the city to pay the full cost of pension obligations amid concern that the price was unaffordable.

WASHINGTON - Democrats moved swiftly yesterday to try turning Medicare's grim financial forecast to their political advantage, blaming Bush administration initiatives to expand the role of private health insurers in the program and alleged White House efforts last year to hide the costs of its plans from Congress. Medicare's chief actuary, Richard S. Foster, told a House panel that he told White House officials in June that his projected cost of Medicare reform legislation would far exceed lawmakers' assumptions.

John Richard "Dick" Nagel, an Army veteran and actuary for 21 years, died of supranuclear palsy Aug. 4 at his Charlottesville, Va., home. The longtime Baltimore resident was 77. Mr. Nagel was born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., where he graduated from high school in 1950. He earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics and actuarial science from Canisius College in 1954. During the Korean War, he served in the Army in New York and New Jersey. After being discharged, he married the former Peggy White in Connecticut and then moved to Baltimore, where he lived with his family for 40 years.

Julian Pushkin, owner of a Baltimore actuarial firm and a passionate pianist who nearly lost his hands to a shotgun blast, died of cancer June 12 at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 82. Mr. Pushkin was born in Baltimore and came from a family of musicians. His Russian grandfather played in the czar's royal orchestra, and his father played drums for the Baltimore Municipal Band and timpani in the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. As a child, Mr. Pushkin also wanted to take up the drums, but his father encouraged him to study piano.

Actuaries are the people who set rates for insurance companies based on their projections as to how much the company will pay out in the future. But when their predictions are wrong, they tend not to suffer any consequences - and they may even describe it as good news. Well, it may be good news for the company when what its actuaries project it will pay out (which is what the company's rates are based on) turns out to be far greater than what it actually pays out. But it's lousy news for insurance consumers and taxpayers, as Marylanders have learned.

Joseph Moye Eddins Sr., an Army Air Forces pilot who flew cargo missions over the Himalayas after World War II and later became a vice president of the Maryland Casualty Co., died Friday of heart failure at the Riderwood Erickson Retirement Community in Silver Spring. The former Towson resident was 83. Mr. Eddins was born and raised in Troy, Ala., and during his senior year of high school passed the exams for the Army Air Forces cadet-training program. After graduating from high school in 1943, he reported to Dos Palos, Calif.

Almost 40 years after he served as president of the NFL Players Association, former Chicago Bears center Mike Pyle is preparing to make a last-ditch stand against the union he helped build. Pyle, 67, is among a large contingent of disgruntled retired NFL players seeking significant pension increases under the league's new collective bargaining agreement. He was scheduled to catch a flight from Chicago today to participate in a closed-door session of 75-plus retired players, most from Baltimore and Washington, to hear from a third-party actuary at Goucher College.

John Wesley Wood Jr., a retired actuary for the U.S. Government Accountability Office, died of pneumonia Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 75 and lived in Towson. Born in Long Island City, N.Y., he was educated in New York City public schools, graduating from high school in 1950. After he graduated from Princeton University with the Class of 1954, he moved to Salisbury, where he worked at the Wayne Pump Co. He was a member of the Community Players in Salisbury, holding the lead in many productions, including Henry VIII and The Devil's Disciple.

The actuary for the state employee pension system told lawmakers yesterday that the retirement fund is sound and that the impact of its investment losses has been overemphasized. Gene Kalwarski, a principal in the Milliman USA actuarial firm, defended the system's investment strategy, which was criticized by experts contacted by The Sun. He said the large investment in international stocks, while costly in the fiscal year that ended June 30, had been successful the year before. "My feeling is that this is a very strong system," Kalwarski told the General Assembly's Joint Committee on Pensions.

WASHINGTON - If Richard S. Foster were an actor, he'd be typecast as a World War II British wing commander - ramrod straight in bearing and sporting a thick, gray mustache over a stiff upper lip. Foster, who is Medicare's chief actuary, displayed a movie hero's unflappable cool this week as he found himself in the political hot spot between Republicans and Democrats battling over what could be this election year's biggest domestic issue, the future of...

RENO, Nev. -- Nearly 2 million poor veterans or their impoverished widows are likely missing out on as much as $22 billion a year in pensions from the U.S. government, but the Department of Veterans Affairs has had only limited success in finding them. Widows are hardest hit. According to a VA estimate, only one in seven of the survivors of the nation's deceased soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who likely could qualify for the pension actually get the monthly checks. And participation in the program is falling, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of VA records.

Paul J. Scheel Sr., a retired president and longtime employee of the former Baltimore-based insurance giant United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., died of a heart attack Thursday in his Lutherville home. He was 72. Mr. Scheel started with USF&G in 1959 in the actuarial department after graduating from Loyola College in Maryland with a degree in mathematics. In May 1971, he was named associate actuary and, six months later, was named vice president. He was elected the company's president and chief operating officer in 1982.