The first time anyone has a conversation with Cliff McCurry, the last thing he wants to talk about is risk management and insurance.
That seems unusual, considering McCurry has devoted most of his life to the profession. At 14, he was a mailroom delivery boy at Mercer Insurance in Savannah, went on to study insurance at the University of Georgia and became an agent, partner, director, vice-chairman, president and chairman during six decades as a professional broker.
There probably isn’t anything he doesn’t know about the business. But one thing he’s learned for sure is it’s not about risk management or insurance. It’s about people. And Cliff McCurry will tell you this: You can’t talk insurance with someone until you know who you’re talking to.
“Empathy is the most important characteristic to be successful in this business — you got to care about people before you even begin to do business,” he says. “You have to get to know them personally, know their major concerns … I’m proud we have clients that were my clients 30 to 40 years ago, and they’re still clients today.”
Ryan Sewell can confirm. He was awarded a CPCU Scholarship while a risk management and insurance student at the Terry College and McCurry, seeing promise in the fellow Savannahian who, like himself, was raised in a blue-collar family, took Sewell under his tutelage. Once he graduated, Sewell met McCurry for lunch meetings at Johnny Harris Restaurant on Savannah’s Victory Drive, where the discussions rarely ventured toward business.
“We’d sit there for two hours, and he would talk to me — he asked about family, my mom and kids and spouse — he truly wanted to get to know you,” Sewell (BBA’ 05) says. “‘What are you dealing with? Where do you find yourself hitting a brick wall? When have you been most discouraged?’ He would compile that information, and without even thinking about it, unload this prophetic information back on you that changed your mindset and direction.”
Sewell is now McCurry’s boss at Sterling Seacrest Pritchard, one of the largest privately held risk management and insurance agencies in the U.S. Per company rules, McCurry “retired” as a partner 11 years ago but continues to work in an advisory role, an accord that benefits both parties. For McCurry, it allows him to mentor young minds in a business he esteems; for Sterling Seacrest Pritchard, it keeps one of Savannah’s most trusted brokers on its roster.
“There are so many driving forces behind his success in the insurance industry, and one key factor is his exceptional relationship-building skills,” says Cindy Robinett (BBA ’89), a partner at Sterling Seacrest Pritchard who has known McCurry for four decades. “Cliff lives a life of integrity that is so valuable in the insurance industry, which is built on trust. People trust Cliff. You know you’re in good hands if Cliff is looking after you.”
We’re talking about the importance of connecting with people, but make no mistake, in the insurance broker world, McCurry is a giant (albeit a “gentle giant,” as Sewell would say). There is his height — he stands 6-foot-5 (before attending UGA, he went to Armstrong State University on a basketball scholarship) — but his stature in the Savannah business community looms the largest.
After joining the Georgia Army National Guard during the height of the Vietnam War (which he served in for six years) and attending basic training in 1969, McCurry married Kathy Hooper in 1970 and graduated from UGA a year later. The McCurrys returned to Savannah in 1971, where Cliff started his career with Mercer Insurance under the guidance of Nick Mamalakis (more about him later). He joined forces with fellow recent graduates — dubbed by Mamalakis as the “young professionals” — to promote the business through radio and newspaper advertising. The agency grew rapidly, and in five years the “young professionals” took over from Mamalakis. A few years after that, they received an offer from Jones and Hill and became Jones Hill and Mercer, one of Georgia’s largest insurance companies.
It was the first in a sequence of mergers and acquisitions: In the late 1980s, Jones Hill and Mercer was bought by Hilb, Rogal, & Hobbs (HRH), one of the nation’s largest insurers. In 2008, HRH was purchased by Willis, a London-based insurance giant.
“You always got people coming after your business,” McCurry says.
It’s an adage at the heart of the insurance trade. He remembers one year, as the renewal date for an insurance program came up, his client said a competitor came in with a proposal 15% lower than his.
“He says, ‘What do you say about that?’” McCurry recalls. “And I said, ‘Well, we’re in the protection business and relationship business. We’re not always going to be the cheapest. Who do you want holding your hand when the big one comes?’”
The client stayed, and eight days later the big one arrived. The “hail storm of the century” hit Savannah and slammed every car dealership on the Southside of town, four of which belonged to the client McCurry just renewed. “I was able to get a claims adjuster on the ground the next day,” he says. “One of the things that’s helped me retain business is them knowing we took care of them when the big storms came.”
That commitment to his hometown extends far beyond his business. Inducted into the Savannah Business Hall of Fame in 2019, McCurry has served as a trustee for the St. Joseph’s/Candler Health System Foundation, a board member for the World Trade Center Savannah and vice chair or chair for the Savannah Economic Development Authority, Communities in Schools of Savannah and Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce. His son, Jamie, is the chief administrative officer at the Georgia Ports Authority, the economic engine for Savannah and the state of Georgia. His many ties give him an inside view of the flourishing city.
“Savannah has just mushroomed — it’s become a city that people not only want to visit, but they also want to live here,” McCurry says. “It’s been fun for me to see the growth of Savannah. Business here is as good as anywhere in the world. It’s amazing that we continue to grow like this.”
It’s the part of the Cliff McCurry story to talk about Nick Mamalakis — or Mr. Mamalakis, as McCurry calls him.
McCurry’s love for people and mentorship was set in motion by Mamalakis, a paragon in the Savannah community who took McCurry under his wing at the age of 12 after his parents divorced. Mamalakis got him the mail clerk job at Mercer, guaranteed his student loan at UGA (on the condition he would take RMI courses), and hired him out of college. When McCurry’s mother passed when he was a high school senior, Mamalakis took on a paternal role in the young man’s life.
“Beyond just teaching me the business, he really cared about me, loved me,” McCurry says. “He actually called me his third son. And so I tell young people that I’ve hired, like Ryan, that you’re like a son to me, and I’m just as interested in your life personally as I am professionally.”
The number of accolades Mamalakis received during his 91 years (he died in 2005) could fill a book but included being the first recipient from the South awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, given for outstanding service to the United States of America. McCurry strives each day to be the living example of his mentor and carry on his legacy in the city that “has been good to me and my family, and so much of it goes back to the lessons Mr. Mamalakis taught me,” McCurry says.
Those lessons — be good to people and give back to those who helped — patterned his life, business and relationships. He’s made sure to pass them to others.
“He’s changed lives, shaped lives, built lives, had a great life himself, but I would imagine there’s not a single day he’s ever woken up and pat himself on the back,” Sewell says. “Man goes through five stages, and growth is always the first one. Whenever Cliff finally gets to what they call conversion, he always starts over and tries to grow in the end. And that’s what he imparts on people — he devotes his time to impact their lives.”