After a long battle with cancer, John “Jack” Byrne, the man billionaire Warren Buffett dubbed “the Babe Ruth of insurance” died at his home in Etna, N.H. on March 7. He was 80 years old.

Byrne is widely considered a legend of insurance since the financially stability of three insurers can arguably be traced to him. PropertyCasualty360-National Underwriter named him to a list of 25 Living Legends of Insurance last year.

Buffett's pride and joy, Geico, wasn't always the auto insurance market leader it is today. In fact, it was on the verge of insolvency when Buffett bought the company in the mid-1970s. After being passed up as president of Travelers, having worked himself up the ladder from his start with the insurer as an actuary, Byrne took the role of CEO at Geico on the advice of colleagues and regulators.

Of the decision, he told PC360-NU, “Looking back on it, I say, 'What a screwball I was to take that job.' Why would a sound man with a heavy mortgage and two kids in school take that job?”

But Byrne cemented his legendary status quickly by orchestrating one of the greatest comebacks in insurance history. He raised $75 million in capital through a common-stock offering, obtained reinsurance to cover a portion of the company's risks, and guided Geico's book of business through an extensive re-underwriting and re-pricing initiative to not only save Buffett's first venture into the insurance world, but make Geico very profitable. Within a year of Byrne's arrival in 1976, Geico was in the black, and it remains at the center of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway empire.

After serving as the head of Geico for a decade, Byrne went on to become chairman of Fireman's Fund, which he took public in what was the largest initial public offering ever. Fireman's Fund was sold to Allianz Group in 1990, at which time Byrne converted the retained holding company assets into the White Mountains Insurance Group, now a Top-40 carrier.

Byrne told PC360-NU he might have been happy finishing his career at Geico. But having achieved enormous success, “I kept looking for new challenges,” he says. “I did not know how to be happy. Do you know a lot of 40-year-olds who know how to be happy?”

Completing an insurance career that began at his father's insurance agency in Wildwood, N.J., Byrne retired in 2007. Two years later he was inducted into the Insurance Hall of Fame.

An obituary from the Rand-Wilson Funeral Home of Hanover, N.H. says Byrne was surrounded by family when he died. Mass was to be held today, followed by a private burial.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to Palliative Care at Norris Cotton Cancer Center or the Upper Valley Haven.

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