Topves - Succes in Safety and Other Matters

Management System Success is Management Success

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[1] Risk Management, Safety and Control of Loss - Protecting Your Organization

[2] Making Your Future - In Business and in Other Parts of Life

My books Success in Safety Improvement Model Management System Success Improvement Process 17-Step Process Improvement Process Rating Management System Structure Management System Content Improving the Management System The Audit Management System Rating International Safety Rating System Accidents and Incidents Accident Investigation Protocol Safety Opinion Survey

Frank E. Bird Jr.

1921 - 2007

Frank E. Bird, Jr

Background: Frank E. Bird Jr. was born December 19, 1921, in Netcong, New Jersey. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Albright College in Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1949 following four years of service in the United States Navy Medical Department during World War II where he served as a chief pharmacist mate. Frank passed away on June 28, 2007.

Professional Experience: At the time of his induction, he was president of the International Loss Control Institute and adjunct professor, Georgia State University. He also was the former director of Engineering Services for the Insurance Company of North America (1968-1973). He was employed by the Lukens Steel Company of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, from 1950-1968 where he managed the safety, health, fire and security programs.

Career Highlights: Mr. Bird pioneered in the expansion of industrial safety from an injury-oriented concept to a discipline encompassing all accidents by his extensive studies and writings on the identification, costs and control of the property damage accident during the 1950s and early 1960s. The book, Damage Control, co-authored by him and published by the American Management Association in 1966, was one of his many publications on this subject. He continued to contribute to management's awareness of the extent of loss from accidents and other avoidable waste of resources by development of the "Total Loss Control" concept at the Insurance Company of North America in 1969. He introduced public courses at the INA Safety Academy where Total Loss Control and the TLC profiling system were taught.

During his long career, he made substantial contributions to the conceptual development and refinement of safety and health program evaluation methods and techniques for a significant number of countries. He originated the safety and health program evaluation systems coordinated today by the Industrial Accident Prevention Association and the Mines Accident Prevention Association of Ontario, Canada; the Quebec Mining Association; the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, United Kingdom; the Accident Compensation Corporation of New Zealand; the Accident Prevention Associations of Spain, Mexico, Chile, the Philippines and safety organizations in Australia, Finland, Holland, Belgium and France. He contributed many innovative methods and techniques for the management of safety and health programs through his extensive writings and international conference participation. He authored several books, including Management Guide to Loss Control and Mine Safety and Loss Control Management, and co-authored Loss Control Management, Practical Loss Control Leadership and Commitment.

His numerous awards and honors included the Public Service Award from the United States Department of the Interior, the Distinguished Service Award from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, Fellow in the American Society of Safety Engineers, Honorary Fellow in the New Zealand Institute of Safety Management, Honorary Life Membership in the Industrial Accident Prevention Association of Ontario and Honorary Life Membership in the Canadian Society of Safety Engineers.

Frank Bird was founder and president of the International Loss Control Institute in Loganville, Georgia, USA. In 1991 he sold his company to DNV. His son David Bird later founded International Risk Control America (IRCA).

Friends at IRCA

At the start of my "safety career" in 1969, I met Mr Frank E. Bird Jr when we both worked for the US Insurance Company, then called INA (Insurance Company of North America), now CIGNA. Mr. Bird worked at the INA World Head Office in Philadelphia and I worked at the European Head Office in Brussels. Our contacts remained after we both left INA in 1973 (for different reasons and without knowing that the other was leaving) and continued till Mr. Bird passed away in 2007. Frank Bird played an influential role - worldwide - in the area of safety management, loss control and risk management. He also had a substantial influence on my live and career. He founded the International Loss Control Institute (ILCI) in 1973/4 and was its President until he sold the company in 1991. From being business associates in the early seventies we became more than friends - no better way to express this is to say that my son is named after him and one of my daughters carries the name of his wife Esther.

David Bird is one of Frank's sons and few years ago decided to follow his father's footsteps when setting up IRCA (International Risk Control of America). It is because of my relation with the Bird family and ILCI that I am very happy to provide a hyperlink to David's IRCA. IRCA continues to build on the work of ILCI and David and his people would be happy to help you develop and implement your management system to improve safety and control of risks. They also provide the necessary training. Just click on the IRCA logo to find out what they have to offer.

For additional information on Frank E. Bird, Jr. click here.

A personal note

The first time I met Frank Bird was in 1969 after he and I both joined INA in 1968. That, however, was a coincidence - Frank was working for INA in Philadelphia while I was in the European office in Brussels. Also coincidental was that he and I both left INA in 1973. He went to set up ILCI and I joined Lowndes Lambert Consulting Services, subsidiary of insurance broker Lowndes Lambert.

It was not a coincidence that we kept in touch. From colleagues we became business partners when I obtained the rights for Europe on the book "Management Guide to Loss Control" early seventies and later also on the "International Safety Rating System" (ISRS). From 1972 on, I attended several training courses provided by Frank and his colleagues, most of them given at Georgia State University in Atlanta, Ga. Later - in 1984 - I setup my own consulting firm LCC based on the ILCI products. The contacts with Frank and his partner in business George Germain were very important in several aspects of my life: in business, as a professional and in private life. From business partners we became friends and "family". As a family my wife Marry and I had the honor and pleasure of visiting Frank and family several times at their home in Loganville, Georgia. Our first child was born in 1990 and we named him Frank and one of our daughters carries the name of Frank's wife Esther. As our children never knew their grandfathers from my wife's and my side, Frank was their "opa Frank".

Frank E. Bird, Jr. painted by Frank Top

Frank E. Bird Jr. painted by Frank Top

We have many pictures that we took when visiting the Bird family in Loganville but let me stick to an "official one". Frank Bird in the middle and I with the dark glasses. The other people are from South Africa, Chili and Norway. Taken in front of the ILCI building in 1989.

Loganville, Ga 1989. With Frank Bird and others.