Wally Hilliard, co-founder of American Medical Security, lived at 'high level of intensity'

SUAMICO - Wally Hilliard was never content to be content.

Hilliard, 90, the co-founder of American Medical Security in Green Bay, died March 6 in Suamico after a several-years battle with Alzheimer's disease.

Hilliard and long-time business partner Ron Weyers started two large insurance companies in Brown County and were among the area's largest employers when those companies were at their peaks.

"He lived life at a very high level of intensity," said son Dan Hilliard.

American Medical Security, which had its headquarters in Howard, was the culmination of decades of partnership between Weyers and Hilliard, always known as "Ron and Wally." Until this year, they were the only joint recipients of the Rotary Club of Green Bay's Free Enterprise Award, which they received in 1991. Weyers, who also had Alzheimer's, died in 2021 at 82.

Although he had a degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Hilliard was, at heart, a salesman. He sold chemicals commercially, and pots and pans and life insurance door-to-door.

Hilliard and Weyers' partnership began in 1970 when they started an insurance agency in Weyers' home. Not content with having only an agency, they started a health insurance company — technically, a third-party administrator which they named named Wisconsin Employers Group, and later Employers Health Insurance — in De Pere that would eventually employ more than 3,000 people.

The duo sold their company to American Express in 1982, but in 1988 started another health insurance company, American Medical Security. Many of their former employees joined them at AMS, which grew rapidly

"With the structure that they built around their finances and their relationships in many different states, their ability to grow was pretty phenomenal. You’ve got to hire a lot of people and they have to advance and move up. Their ability to apply that philosophy was rather unique," Dan Hillard said.

Theirs was an unconventional way of doing business, summed up by their frequent mantra of "Have fun, make money and fight communism." It was not unusual to see Hilliard and Weyers going from cubicle to cubicle dishing out root bear floats to employees, awarding them $100 bonuses for coming up with a better idea for doing something, or personally handing out Christmas bonuses. Ideas and thinking were encouraged.

Their freewheeling approach and always open-door policy endeared them to employees.

"So many memories with him and Ron," said Anne Meeuwsen Kloiber, a former employee. "He and Ron impacted so many lives, and showed all of us who worked for them what 'Employee Appreciation' really means. So many organizations talk a good game, but they lived it every day."

The partnership ended in 1996, when financial backer United Wisconsin Services exercised its option to buy the company.

Hilliard, who lived part time in Florida for a number of years, was a serial entrepreneur, although he never achieved the same level of success after AMS.

"He surrounded himself with less-capable people and took on businesses he didn’t know, and generated a lot of losses. He kept that risk-taking philosophy," Dan Hilliard said.

Because Wally Hilliard worked long hours at his businesses, vacations were a family highlight, he said.

"We’d go for a week and two weeks and do fun stuff. How many people loaded up the family and rented a houseboat and lived on the Mississippi River for a week, pulling up at sandbars for the night," he said. "Or he'd get a motor home and load up grandma and grandpa and the family and go out west."

When they took that Mississippi River vacation, they towed a ski runabout, but that wasn't sufficient for Hilliard. A succession of ever-larger boats culminated in a 44-footer. He also had a pilot's license, beginning with a one-engine, four-passenger plane and progressing to a twin-engine, 12-passenger model.

"Why did he need a plane that big? So he could take his whole family, and he could take his executive committee to Canada fishing," Dan Hilliard said.

A dedicated runner, Hilliard competed in the Boston and New York marathons as well as others.

He was a supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs and other organizations through the Ron Weyers and Wally Hilliard Freedom Fund. The Weyers-Hilliard branch of Brown County Library in Howard opened in 2000, just down the street from AMS headquarters.

Hilliard said at the library opening that insurance companies only thrive in counties with vital economies, and "you get those kind of economies from people with education."

Hilliard's full obituary can be read here.

A private service will be held with family. A Celebration of Life will be 3 to 5 p.m. May 5 at the Green Bay Community Church. Additional celebration will follow at Townline Pub & Grill.

Editor's note: Richard Ryman was employed by American Medical Security from late 1993 though 1997.

Contact Richard Ryman at rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: American Medical Security founder Wally Hilliard remember for intensity