Kelker Retires After 23 

 Years As Manager of 

 Country Mutual Fire Co. 



JOHN H. KELKER has retired 

 as manager of the Country Mutual 

 Fire Company effective Dec. 31. 

 He has been manager of the company 

 since it was first organized in 1925. 

 He is succeeded by Darrell L. Achen- 

 bach, 38, who since 1946 has been secre- 

 tary-treasurer of the Fox Valley-Joliet 

 Production Credit Association in Geneva. 

 Achenbach was born and reared on a 

 farm near Taylorville in Christian county. 

 Kelker will continue to work in the 

 field of insurance. He is planning to 

 assist the Mutual Casualty Company of 

 the Missouri Farm Bureau in organizing 

 a fire, wind, and hail insurance division. 

 He and his wife plan to live in Jefferson 

 1 Gty, Mo. 



Kelker has worked for the Illinois 

 Agricultural Association for 25 years. 

 He was employed in 1923 as office mana- 

 ger and comptroller. 



A self-educated man, Kelker started 



John H. ir«(kar (left), 

 retiring manager of 

 Country Mutual Cas- 

 ualty Company, chat* 

 with his successor, 

 Darrell L. Achenbach, 

 during lAA annual 

 meeting at Hotel 

 Sherman In Chicago. 



to work at the age of 1 5 after completing 

 one year of high school. He attended 

 public schools at Quincy, where he was 

 born and lived before moving to Chicago. 



He worked for three years in a factory 

 as a machine operator and then, after 

 reaching the required age of 18, worked 

 as a letter carrier at the Quincy post 

 office. 



He continued in this job for 16 years 

 during which time he studied account- 

 ing nights by subscribing to a course 

 from a Chicago correspondence school. 



In 1919 Kelker entered private practice 



as an accountant and three years later, 

 in 1922, accepted an appointment as chief 

 deputy collector in the Quincy area for 

 the internal revenue department. 



He was advanced the following year 

 to head a division for the internal revenue 

 service comprising the area south of 

 Springfield. Later in 1923 he came with 

 the lAA as its office manager and comp- 

 troller. 



Kelker passed the state examination 

 for public accountant in 1932 and in 

 1943 received a certified public account- 

 ant's certificate. 



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L A. A. RECORD 



