Led Esleeck Manufacturing Company, Championed Community Outreach
William “Bill” Blanker, 97, founding member of A.I.M. Mutual’s Board of Directors and retired Chairman of Esleeck Manufacturing Company, died June 11.
Bill served on the A.I.M. Mutual Board of Directors starting with the first meeting in 1996, when the company became a mutual insurer. He served on two committees during his tenure with the Board and was elected Director Emeritus in 2024.
Bill joined Esleeck Manufacturing Company in Turners Falls, Massachusetts, as a Cost Accountant and went on to hold positions as Treasurer and Director, VP and Treasurer, President & CEO, and Chairman and CEO. He retired in 2006, when the company became part of Southworth Paper Company. Esleeck Manufacturing was among the first workers’ compensation members of the Massachusetts Employers Insurance Exchange, formed in 1988, which would later become A.I.M. Mutual.
Bill spent 40 years on the Board of Directors of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, serving as assistant treasurer and treasurer before being elected AIM chairman in 1994.
Born in in Greenfield, Massachusetts, Bill also called Stowe, Vermont, home. He earned a BA from Tufts University in 1949 before launching an amazing career, marked by professional and civic achievement. Reflecting on Bill’s tremendous legacy, Daniel Landers, A.I.M. Mutual’s President & CEO, remembers a great friend and strategist. “He guided us through the early years to the company’s emergence as a regional workers’ compensation insurer. In fact, we credit him for our successful expansion into Vermont, as just one example. Bill had a home in Stowe, which turned out to be an instant advantage for A.I.M. Mutual. Somehow Bill knew more about the Vermont marketplace than any part-time resident should. Our running joke was that Bill was the number one revenue generator in the state, developing and encouraging ideas for our entrance into this new territory. Today we are one of the largest carriers there, a great tribute to Bill, his effort and vision.”
For Bill, who was active in many western Massachusetts community organizations, Camp Wiyaka had special meaning. He attended this summer camp, affiliated with the Athol and Greenfield YMCA, worked as a counselor there, and later served on its Board for 50 years.
Bill leaves two sons, Alan and Charles, and a daughter Susan, and their families. He was predeceased by his wife, Ann, in 2013.
