When Frank Riedman recalled his Jesuit education, unlike most, he did not dwell on the strictness and the prohibitions that seem so dire by modern standards, but presented first the sense of purpose that his years at Holy Cross drilled into his soul: the Jesuit motto is Ad majorem Dei gloriam– toward the greater glory of God. So it was that Frank would never let himself be a materially driven or power powered man, no matter what successes he enjoyed as a partner in one of New York’s largest independent agencies, Riedman Corp. of Rochester, nor as President of the IIAANY back in the turbulent 1984-85 years. He stood instead, at the head of those whose earnestness and honesty reflected more a sense of clarity than the plainness he tried so hard to imply, more a drive toward fairness and goodness than toward any other values, corporate or human. We had the privilege of working with him many years back and spent hours traveling together for the Association to Philadelphia, Suffolk County, to Jamestown and to Washington. I have never met a more balanced, genuinely focused man, for whom his bright and beautiful-and, today, growingly complex-family was never viewed from the perspective of his importance, but of theirs. To them, he brought that other great maxim from the Romans back to life: verba movent, example trahunt–“words may move, but example compels.” His rich character on so many levels has found its way to his son and daughters and their offspring. He and his devoted wife of 51 years, Norma, pulled friends close and never lost their loving center of gravity, nor will that diminish with his sudden, sad passing at 76 on March 11th. In Frank’s professional career he was known as an agent’s agent, held a CPCU and earned “many plaques,” as he’d say. There’s more, but he’d be the first to say “skip it and make your point.”

My recollections are many, but none as great as those summer arrivals at Conesus Lake, when my children, then in grade school, Carole and I would ride 6 1/2 hours up Route 17 to Hornell to Livonia and down to McPherson’s Point on the Lake only to pull into the Riedman’s estate to find Frank on his tractor and Norma preparing dinner for the masses. In an instant, Frank would get off the tractor just long enough to say hello and quickly assign my son and me “farm jobs”, if only for the fun he would poke at me all weekend for my richly demonstrable ineptitude. Like the time we were coming out of Mass at the garage sized church in Williamsville and I suggested we go up to Livonia so I could buy a farm uniform. Or his insisting that I throw back the first fish I ever caught (at 35) telling me it was possibly a “poison perch,” I believed him.

His years and the years following his leadership of IIAANY included the 1984 Time magazine cover, changes of all kinds in the market, and challenges from outside the industry. But Big Frank held the wheel. We all knew it and felt it and followed his careful steering. He would always have preferred you not notice so much or that you never mentioned just how solidly, brightly and caringly he turned that wheel, always for the better. With his passing, we have lost a great one. I have spent nearly 25 years working with Associations and as Trustee of different entities. One evening after perhaps little more than mellowing with a few glasses of wine, a friend from the former Association leadership ranks asked me which of the 20 or so I had worked with was the very best. He was fishing, to be sure.

To be diplomatic, I said “There surely was one man, a truly decent, truly intelligent, truly courageous and truly morally fibered leader and he knows who he is.” Frank, the secret’s out.

And Frank, no matter what you say, we will never forget you.

We participate personally with Norma and the family in their sorrow.