Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan & Collins Celebrates 80 Years

03:00PM / Thursday, June 28, 2007Print Story | Email Story

Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan & Collins (CPD&C) Insurance Agency is celebrating eighty years of successful service, according to an announcement by Robert Collins, President. The agency that is today Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan, and Collins was founded in 1927. CPD&C was recently saluted for its anniversary and history of success at a Berkshire Chamber of Commerce Good News Breakfast. Collins, who has been with CPD&C for over 30 years, stated, "I am very proud of the accomplishments of this agency and to be leading the organization founded by my grandfather, Bill Geddes, during its' 80th year." Vice President Tim Dolan, with 20 years of service, added, "I am grateful to those, like my father Joe, who came before me and set the foundation for the agency. I am also thankful to all the customers throughout the Berkshires for their years of patronage." The Early Years In 1927, two North Adams businessmen, Harold Crippen and William Geddes, purchased the Reinhard Insurance Agency and renamed it Geddes & Crippen. By the early 1950s, Geddes, then a widower, had three granddaughters and a grandson, Robert Collins, who often accompanied his grandfather on visits to business clients. Robert - perhaps influenced by these early visits with his grandfather - would one day become a partner in the agency. A Changing Industry In 1954, Geddes hired Edward Coakley. Shortly thereafter, Geddes passed away and Coakley purchased shares and became a partner. Coakley's daughter, Martha, would one day grow up to be the first female Attorney General of Massachusetts. In the mid-fifties, a major shift occurred within the insurance industry. Until then, people purchased multiple policies in small amounts. There was no such thing as a bundled "Homeowner's" policy. Rather, people held individual policies for Fire, Theft, Liability, Flood, and more. In 1955, the agency mailed clients hand-typed letters that described with enthusiasm "the latest development" in insurance - the packaging of products into a single Homeowner's policy. In 1957, Donald Crippen, son of founder Harold Crippen, became a new partner, and the firm became Crippen & Coakley. 1960s and 1970s...A New Generation In 1964, Joseph Dolan joined the agency. In 1967, he became an officer, and the agency was renamed Crippen, Coakley, & Dolan. Dolan, a father of six children, was deeply involved with the community. Dolan's son, Tim, who would join the agency in 1987, enjoyed working with his father until Joe's retirement, several years later. In 1969, Donald Crippen resigned, and Robert Armata, joined the firm. At this point, the firm was rechristened Coakley, Dolan, & Armata. Two years later, in 1971, the agency merged with the company founded in 1936 by Harry Pierpan. Pierpan's firm had itself grown substantially during its 35 years, acquiring several other local firms. At the time of the 1971 merger, Pierpan's firm was run in part by Henry Pierpan, the son of the firm's founder. This latest merger made the agency Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan, & Armata. By the early 1970s, Robert Collins, grandson of founder William Geddes, had followed in his grandfather's footsteps as an insurance representative. Collins purchased the Kronick agency in 1974, and merged it with his grandfather's agency - now Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan, & Armata - one year later. A few years later, the agency took its current name: Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan, & Collins. 1980s and 1990s: Looking Forward In the late 1980s, the agency purchased the building formerly occupied by one of its former clients, the Wall-Streeter Shoe Company, at 26 Union Street in North Adams. By then, manufacturing in the area had begun to decline; renovating this building was a powerful symbol to the community that the local economy, while changing, would continue to thrive. Today, nearly 2 decades later, CPD&C is still headquartered at the Wall-Streeter Shoe Company location. By the 1990s, CPD&C offered Business insurance, Property and Casualty insurance, Life insurance, and other financial services. In May, 1997, seventy years after Geddes and Crippen founded their firm, CPD&C spun off a new company: True North Financial services. This company, an independent financial services firm, allowed both agencies to serve their customers with greater specialization. Today: A Community Institution, True to Our Roots Today, CPD&C serves thousands of customers, both businesses and families, with a comprehensive array of insurance offerings. A premier Property and Casualty provider, CPD&C is licensed in 28 states, and serves every customer - whether a hospital, museum, medical practice, land developer, contractor, or family - with professionalism, reliability, and trust. The industry has witnessed tremendous consolidation, as well. In the early 1950s - around the time that Coakley added his name to the firm - there were 26 insurance agencies with offices in North Adams. Today, there are just five. CPD&C, today one of the largest property and casualty insurance agencies in Western Massachusetts, is an affiliate of MountainOne Financial Partners. MountainOne Financial Partners, MHC, is a mutual holding company that comprises five wholly owned subsidiaries: Hoosac Bank, Williamstown Savings Bank, True North Financial Services, South Coastal Bank, and Coakley, Pierpan, Dolan & Collins Insurance Agency. The five companies total more than 200 employees at their offices in Adams, North Adams, Williamstown, Pittsfield, Rockland, Scituate, Quincy, and Braintree, MA. By working in partnership, the companies of MountainOne offer an extensive range of personal and commercial banking services, leading edge electronic banking, customized insurance products, and comprehensive investment management for individuals and businesses.

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North Adams Updated on Schools, Council President Honored With 'Distinction'

By Tammy Daniels iBerkshires Staff
12:31PM / Wednesday, March 25, 2026

Superintendent Timothy Callahan gives a presentation on the school system at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The City Council got an update on what's up in the school system and its president was inducted into the mayor's Women's Leadership Hall of Fame.

Mayor Jennifer Macksey, as the city's first woman mayor, established the Hall of Fame in 2022, during March, Women's History Month, to recognize local women who have had a positive impact on the city. Past inductees have included the council's first woman president Fran Buckley, Gov. Jane Swift and boxing pioneer Gail Grandchamp.

She described President Ashley Shade as a colleague and a friend and a former student.

"Ashley is known not just for her leadership, but for her compassion, her ability to listen, to understand and to stand up for those whose voices are often gone unheard," the mayor said. "She has been a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ plus community and marginalized communities at both the local and national level here in North Adams."

Elected in 2021, Shade is the first openly transgender person to hold the role of council president in Massachusetts. She also leads the first-ever woman majority council in the city's history.

The McCann Technical School graduate also has served on boards and commissions, "always working to make our city more inclusive, equitable and welcoming," said the mayor. "Ashley not leads not only with strength, but with a heart, and our community is a much stronger place because of it."

Shade, wearing her signature pink suit, was presented with a plaque from the mayor designating her a "woman of distinction."

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