Oldest American College grad dies

Margaret Bradshaw, CLU, the oldest graduate of the American College, passed away August 12. She was 106 years old.

Bradshaw graduated in the college’s class of 1931 and was the first female agent in the United States to receive the Chartered Life Underwriter designation. She was also the only woman in the Providence, R.I., office of John Hancock in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

In addition to being an agent, Bradshaw gave lectures, wrote articles and taught insurance classes at Rhode Island’s Brown University. She was an active supporter of many nonprofits and charitable causes, often scouring New York papers for stories of people in need and helping them out anonymously. She later went on to found the Rhode Island Chapter of the Professional and Business Women’s Association and became its president.