For most of his professional life, Stan Hughey worked for Kemper Insurance, initially in the data processing department, and later as a Vice President.

Kemper Insurance was a family of insurance companies first organized early in the 20th century by James S. Kemper. It included the Lumberman’s Mutual Casualty Company, American Manufacturer’s Insurance Company, and American Motorists Insurance Company.

The company’s headquarters was located at 20 North Upper Wacker Drive, in what was then known as the Kemper Building. The building was built by Samuel Insull for his corporate headquarters and included an opera house on the street level. Following the financial demise of Insull after 1929, the building was purchased by Kemper for their headquarters and renamed. Kemper later moved out of the space to Long Grove, Illinois. The Opera House remains home to the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

During World War II and after, Kemper Insurance also had an office building on the north side of Chicago, in the Uptown Neighborhood, at 4750 N. Sheridan Road. This is where Stanley primarily worked. It is also where Tom Cartmell’s father (Dr. Cartmell) worked for Kemper Insurance.

Kemper moved out of the building when it migrated to its corporate campus in Long Grove, Illinois in the 1970s. But the building remains and is used by a number of small businesses and service organizations.

The company thrived after WWII, growing to become one of the larger property-casualty insurance companies in America. But by the 1990’s, the winds of financial fortune had shifted and the company drifted into a slow, downward spiral.^[1]Schiff’s Insurance Observer By 2013, its assets had been liquidated, although the name (as a recognizable trademark) lives on, adopted by Unitrin, and insurance company that purchased many of the remaining assets.