005 ROY McDONALD POSTHUMOUSLY INDUCTED INTO TENNESSEE INSURANCE HALL OF FAME

July 25, 2006
CONTACT: Tom Tozer, 615-898-5131
Dr. Ken Hollman, 615-898-2673

MURFREESBORO—Roy Ketner McDonald, formerly of Chattanooga, who is remembered for creating Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Tennessee and recognized by his peers as “a brilliant success,” will be inducted posthumously into the Middle Tennessee State University Robert E. Musto Tennessee Insurance Hall of Fame on Monday, July 31.
The ceremony and banquet, which will begin at 5:30 p.m., will take place at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs, Franklin, Tenn.
Friends and professional associates of McDonald and his family, are invited free of charge to the banquet and ceremony. The hotel is located at 700 Cool Springs Boulevard, and the phone number is 1-615-261-6100.
McDonald will be inducted along with William Seaton Phillips of Memphis and Jack K. Westbrook of Knoxville. McDonald’s son-in-law, Lee Anderson of Chattanooga, will accept the plaque commemorating the honor.
"The Musto Insurance Hall of Fame was created to identify and honor those insurance professionals whose names will be mentioned most prominently when a history of the insurance industry in Tennessee is written," Dr. Ken Hollman, holder of MTSU’s Martin Chair of Insurance, said.
McDonald was a newspaper man. He published a modest weekly paper in 1933 to promote specials in his Home Stores. These 73 years later, the Chattanooga Times Free Press is the largest newspaper in the city with a daily circulation exceeding 80,000 and 100,000 on Sunday. All of this from a man who graduated from Chattanooga’s Central High School and attended one year at Georgia Institute of Technology.
Born in Graysville, Tenn., McDonald dropped out of school in order to manage some of his father’s grocery stores in South Carolina and Florida—and he never looked back. He moved to Chattanooga in 1924 to open his first Home Store. Eventually there were 70 Home Stores throughout the city and surrounding areas.
Active in numerous civic and non-profit organizations, McDonald was the namesake of one of the Chattanooga Fire Department’s ladder trucks. In 1953, he received the Kiwanis Club’s “Man of the Year” Distinguished Service Award. In 1981, he received the “Service to Mankind” Award of the Chattanooga Downtown Sertoma Club, and a year later was the recipient of the Chattanooga Chamber’s Arthur G. Vieth Memorial Award for outstanding contributions in advancing American free enterprise. In 1985, he was presented with the Dorothy Patten “Love of Chattanooga” Award.
McDonald served as a member and chairman of the board of Baroness Erlanger and T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital for more than 20 years. He set up the Erlanger Plan for prepaid hospitalization that was later expanded to become Blue Cross—Blue Shield of Tennessee. Until his death, McDonald was BCBS’s only board chairman.
In 1997, Robert L. Musto, son of Robert E. Musto, presented a $10,000 gift to MTSU's Martin Chair of Insurance in honor of his father, which provided the foundation for the hall of fame. The late Robert E. Musto served as vice president of the former National Life and Accident Insurance Company. Robert L. Musto of Nashville is regional sales manager of the company his father helped build.
To register your attendance for the banquet and ceremony, please contact Hollman at 615-898-2673.

####

NOTE: For a jpeg headshot of McDonald, please contact Tom Tozer at 615-898-5131.