BARTON INSURANCE SERVICES

Henry Lee Shumake

 

Henry graduated high school and completed sixty college credit hours. He joined the US Army at 17 years old.  After 2 years in the US Army, he returned to Farmington to work as a Produce Manager and became Glenwood Lees’ first manager.  He then joined the US Air Force Reserves in December of 1949, and was recalled to active duty in May of 1950 where he was assigned to food breakdown and costing of each meal. In 1952, he was assigned to Okinawa with the same position.  After a few weeks, he was assigned to run the clubs where the commander agreed to send him back to commissary in one year .

 

He served two years as NCOIC of the unit in Okinawa, and returned to the states as NCOIC for two years at Cheyenne, Wyoming. He served five years on recruiting duty, and then, served a one year tour in Alaska as exchange manager in charge of a store, snack bar, barber shop and theater. Then, he was assigned to the exchange officer school in Lee Virginia, and then on to Vietnam for one year as exchange manager for four stores. He retired after 22 years.

 

Henry was hired by Blue Cross of Mission as a sales representative for the Farmington area.  After six months, he was hired as District Manager for the Cape Girardeau area.  This consisted of an office in Cape Girardeau with four representatives and an office manager for all of Southeast Missouri.  He was responsible for enrolling all groups as small as two employees and up as well as servicing the Federal employee programs.

 

After two years, the company changed to two regional manager positions for the 90 counties in Missouri.  Henry was assigned the out-of-state position.  The position consisted of three districts and four offices.  He was in charge of enrolling new businesses with 3+ employees, and also, for the service of these groups.  Working from home, he reported to the Director of Marketing.  He worked very close with the Manager of Underwriting and the Director for actuarial services.  He met with the managers and directors at least once a week to review accounts.  He had the privilege of attending a number of schools on health care and cost.

 

Henry received his certificate as a Healthcare Consultant from the Marketing Development Institute at Purdue University in Indiana.  After 15 years of traveling the state, they reorganized the districts to a regional position.  Henry accepted the Cape Girardeau Region position for three years and was responsible for servicing all groups with two or more employees.  The region had three, full-time, new business representatives and two service only representatives as well as two telephone representatives and a secretary.

 

Henry spent three great years helping groups build benefit structures at a cost they could afford. The training Henry received over the years helped the region retain 97% of all its business groups.

 

Henry has been with Barton Insurance Agency since he retired from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Missouri on December 31, 1989.  His specialties include consulting large groups and working with Eric Barton and insurance actuaries to obtain the best rate for the groups.  Henry has worked with cities, governments and school groups for 40 years.  He also works with retirees to coordinate their group insurance with Medicare, and he works to settle claim disputes.