Mary Ellen Rozzell, the past president of the National Association of Surplus Lines Offices (NAPSLO) and president and owner of Continental Marmorstein & Malone in New Jersey, passed away on March 3.
Rozzell suffered a massive brain hemorrhage while attending the NAPSLO Mid-Year Workshop meeting in Palm Springs, Calif. She was taken to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where surgery was performed. She was placed on life support until she passed away on March 3.
Rozzell served as NAPLSO’s second woman president in the history of the association from October 2007 to October 2008. NAPSLO was founded in 1974.
She began working in the excess and surplus lines business with the Marmorstein Agency some 40 years ago. She loved her job and had made so many lifelong friendships with companies, agents and fellow competitors.
In an interview with Insurance Journal in September 2007, Rozzell said that when she began working in the insurance industry women in the workplace was not so common, including the surplus lines industry.
“There really were not a lot of woman involved in our business at that time,” Rozzell said. “But I’ve been very lucky,” she said, noting the fact that being a woman in the business was never an issue.
“I really started at the very bottom of the business, and I’ve since been in every possible line of business in this firm,” Rozzell said back then. She worked in every department in her firm. “I’ve spent my entire career here,” she said. “I issued policies, I handled claims, I filed, I did underwriting assistance, underwriting and then moved into management and eventually into ownership of this firm.”
Rozzell never had doubts about her choice to work and excel in the surplus lines insurance world.
“I absolutely love what I do,” she told IJ in 2007. “I truly can tell you that I’ve never gone to work saying I don’t want to go to my job.”
She will be missed by all that knew her, NAPSLO wrote.
Services for Rozzell will take place on Monday, March 9 at 9:30 a.m. ET at St. Mary’s Church, 91 Home Avenue, Rutherford, N.J., 07070. Viewing at Collins Calhoun Funeral Home will be on Saturday, March 7 from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. Viewing on Sunday, March 8 will be from 1:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. only. The funeral home is located at 19 Lincoln Ave., Rutherford, N.J., 07070 and the phone number is 201-939-1050.
“The Mary Ellen Rozzell Foundation” has been created for AVM research, in which friends and colleagues may make a contribution in Rozzell’s name. Donations can be made payable to same and sent to Continental Marmorstein & Malone, c/o Sue Bishop Mischler, 305 Route 17 South, Paramus, N.J., 07652.
Topics Excess Surplus
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