A family policy in W-B

As city celebrates bicentennial, locally run insurance firm celebrates its 110th birthday.
By RENITA FENNICK rfennick@leader.net

WILKES-BARRE - Rob Hoban wasn't around the last time the city hosted a big birthday bash - but his family's company was.

J. W. Hoban & Associates, Inc., an insurance brokerage house, is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year, just as Wilkes-Barre officials are planning a celebration for the city's bicentennial.

Founded by Joseph W. Hoban, the business is still run by a Hoban family member and although it has moved three times, it's always stayed in Wilkes-Barre.

"And, we'll always be in the city," said Rob Hoban, the founder's grandson who joined the company in 1970. "The business has changed so much with the electronics age and more employees. But what hasn't changed is the service that comes out of here."

The agency has three partners - Hoban, Rick Gazenski and Andy Reno - and six full- and part-time employees. Hoban estimates that the group serves more than 3,000 clients with a 50-50 mix of commercial and personal business.

Mayor Tom Leighton commended the company on its anniversary and said: "It's businesses like the Hoban group that will make Wilkes-Barre as successful as it was years ago when we had a lot of family-owned businesses."

The founder's sons, Robert (Rob's father) and Edward, also worked in the business over the years.

The first Hoban office was in the Simon Long Building in the first block of South Main Street - and Rob Hoban still has a large, stand-up desk from that location. The business moved to a spot across from City Hall before settling into what is now the Luzerne National Bank Building.

In the mid-1990s, around the time the company hit the century mark, the Hobans decided it was time to buy property for the rapidly growing business. They bought and renovated a former photo studio at Carey Avenue and Old River Road in South Wilkes-Barre. The company now has a Web site, computers at every desk and does a lot of business through e-mail.

But, changing with the times hasn't always been an easy sell.

Rob smiles as he recalls how his father resisted hiring office help and updating the equipment.

"We finally hired a secretary in the 1980s," he said. "Rick (Gazenski) came on board and there were three of us, plus a secretary with only two phone lines. We had to move down the hall to a suite of offices and I had to fight with my father to convince him we needed a computer in 1994."

Tradition goes both ways, Hoban said, noting that some of the company's clients have been on the books since they were acquired by his father right after World War II.

For some time, Gazenski said, clients wanted to deal only with a Hoban family member.

"We're No. 1 because of the Hoban name and because of the personal, customer service that this agency has been known for," Gazenski said. "For a while, customers would say to me: 'I want to talk to a Hoban.' And, that was fine with me. Now, they're comfortable with all of us."

The agency is a brokerage house that writes policies for numerous insurance companies but its main affiliation is with the Erie Insurance Group.

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Courtesy of: The Times Leader
Written by: Renita Fennick, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 829-7246.