Los Angeles
County
Biographies
GEORGE
IRA COCHRAN
A
forceful business executive, George Ira Cochran has successfully administered
the affairs of the Pacific Mutual Life Insurance Company since 1906, and prior
to that time was engaged in the practice of law in this city. A native of Canada, he was born at Oshawa, in
the province of Ontario, July 1, 1863, a son of the Rev. George Cochran, D. D.,
and Catherine Lynch (Davidson) Cochran, the latter a descendant of John Wesley,
the founder of Methodism. Rev. Cochran
was a Methodist minister and missionary and for some time was Dean of the
University of Southern California.
As
a lad of seven years George I. Cochran went with his parents to Japan, where
the father was engaged in missionary work for six years, and in Tokyo the son
George attended private schools.
Following the return of the family to Canada he enrolled in the
Collegiate Institute of Toronto and later matriculated in the University of
Toronto. He studied law in Osgood Hall
and in 1888 was admitted to the bar at Toronto.
Shortly afterward he came to Los Angeles and in February, 1888,
qualified for practice before the supreme court of California. He began his professional career in Los
Angeles, maintaining a law office here for eighteen years, and the court
records bear proof of his power as an attorney, showing that he successfully
handled much important litigation.
Mr.
Cochran retired from practice in 1906 to become president of the Pacific Mutual
Life Insurance Company and for twenty-seven years has remained at its head, a
period of notable growth and progress.
Among the foremost of the old line companies, the Pacific Mutual of
California has extended its business practically across the continent and is
classed with the oldest and largest insurance organizations of the west. Mr. Cochran has supervised and directed the
investment of millions of dollars of the company’s assets and is largely
responsible for the prestige which it now enjoys. Many business and financial corporations have
profited by his wisdom and experience.
He is a member of the directorates of the Southern California Edison
Company, the Security-First National Bank of Los Angeles, the Anglo-California Trust
Company of San Francisco, the Rosedale Cemetery Association, the Seaside
Investment Company, the Pacific Finance Corporation, the Long Beach Bathhouse
and Amusement Company and the California Delta Farms, Inc.
In
Newcastle, Ontario, Canada, August 6, 1890, Mr. Cochran was married to Miss
Alice Maud McClung, who passed away in 1905, and on April 7, 1917, he wedded
her sister, Miss Isabella May McClung.
Mr. Cochran has membership in the Methodist Episcopal Church and is a
generous contributor to religious, philanthropic and civic causes. In politics he has been active, serving at
one time on the Republican central committee of Los Angeles County. Loyal and public-spirited in all matters of
citizenship, he was a member of the Los Angeles city charter commission of
1893, rendering valuable service to the municipality in that connection. His
keen interest in the progress of education in his state prompts his effective
work as a regent of the University of California and president of the board of
trustees of the University of Southern California in which he takes an active
interest. By nature genial and companionable, Mr. Cochran belongs to the
California Club, the Los Angeles Country Club, the Union League Club, the Midwick Country Club, the Los Angeles Athletic Club,
University and Jonathan Clubs, all of Los Angeles, and the Pacific Union Club
and Bohemian Club of San Francisco. His
standards of life are high, and his breadth of mind is shown in the scope and
variety of his interests and activities.
Transcribed
by V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South Vol.
IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 707-708,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V.
Gerald Iaquinta.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES