Employee celebrates 50 years at Farmers on Mercer Island

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Gwen Waterhouse will be retiring in December after a 50-year career at Farmers New World Life Insurance Co. in Mercer Island.

Waterhouse joined the company on Oct. 27, 1966 as a policy file clerk, and since then has held more than 10 different positions. She is currently a business analyst, working with the IT and operations departments.

She said she’s enjoyed the consistency, security and comfort of working for the same company, and that her coworkers have always been “caring and supportive.”

Waterhouse and her husband, Ron, moved to the Seattle area from Mississippi in 1966. They lived in the Shorewood Apartments for a few years before moving to the Madrona neighborhood in Seattle, where they still reside.

They have two sons and three grandchildren, whom Waterhouse said she is looking forward to spending more time with after retiring.

Though her commute has changed a bit since the 1960s (when Interstate 90 was one lane each way), it still only takes Waterhouse about 15 minutes to get to work, she said. She has seen the Island change and grow over the years, “multiplying” with more buildings, houses and people, but never felt a change in career was necessary. She always enjoyed coming in to work every day.

“I always said that if there’s a day when I can’t stand to come into this building, it was time to go, and I never felt that way,” she said.

When Waterhouse started with the Farmers, it was at the current City Hall location. The company moved to the building on 77th Avenue Southeast, by Mercerdale Park, in 1982, taking over the site of a bowling alley. About 500 employees work out of the Mercer Island headquarters, with about 100 more in other offices around the country.

An avid volunteer and walker, Waterhouse said she will continue both after she stops working. She is also planning to travel with her friend, Kathy Elmer, who was her roommate while they both worked for Farmers in Austin in the summer of 1992.

Of the many connections made over 50 years, that friendship is “the one that stands out, since we do continue to see each other as often as possible, to walk, see plays and attend concerts,” Waterhouse said.

Elmer retired in 2008, and the two went on a 10-day tour of France and spent a week in London. Waterhouse said she is looking forward to more little trips and vacations once she retires.

Waterhouse got into walking when she saw information on someone’s desk about Volksmarches, noncompetitive 5k and 10k walks on outdoor paths. Since then, she said she’s participated in “hundreds” of walks, including some in Olympia, Portland, Vancouver and Whidbey Island.

Waterhouse has a work walking partner, Eureka Chow, and the two stroll around Mercer Island during breaks. If it’s raining, they go into the Farmers covered parking garage, and if it’s really cold, they walk around the aisles of Rite Aid.

She’s volunteered at the Mercer Island Half Marathon for the past eight years, and plans to keep doing that. It supports a cause that’s close to her heart, as her father died of colon cancer.

Farmers is involved in many volunteer efforts for several organizations in the area, and Waterhouse said it was important to her to work for a company that gives back to the community.

“It shows they care,” she said.

Farmers will have 50th anniversary and retirement celebrations for Waterhouse in the coming months.

For more, see www.farmers.com/life-insurance.