Morris & Garritano Insurance History: 1927-WW2
Stepping in from the 1927 bustle of Higuera Street and its Model T’s, one would hear the gregarious Pete Bachino, who Vollmer lured from business in the Santa Maria oilfields. Pete loved people, and they responded in kind.
He also loved “gizmos” as Greg Morris recalls, “Pete was a gadget nut.” And what could be a better gadget than a toy? Pete “generally had new ones before the kids. When kids would visit him, they would always go home with a new toy.”
In 1935, another generous spirit destined for the Central Coast began calling on Messrs. Bachino and Volmer: Harry Morris visited here as a young field representative from the Hartford Insurance Company.
Five years after their acquaintance, in 1940, Mr. Vollmer shifted his full focus to ranching and non-insurance endeavors. Consequently, Les Stockird joined the agency. Their window changed to “Bachino & Stockird Insurance Brokers, Successors to Ernest Vollmer.”
While Stockird deepened the agency’s technical expertise with his underwriting years at London and Lancashire Insurance, Bachino “sold the hell out of it because he was so friendly and knew the people,” according to Greg Morris.
Though all was well with business, all was far from well in the world. It was in these troubled years of World War II that the agency had what Greg Morris considers its defining moment.
