Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Cochran, George Ira July 1, 1863 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com July 11, 2010, 7:33 pm

Source: California and Californians, Vol. IV, Published 1932, Pages 57 - 58
Author: The Lewis Publishing Company

     GEORGE IRA COCHRAN has been a resident of Los Angeles thirty-five years, 
is a lawyer by profession, but is best known as president of The Pacific 
Mutual Life Insurance Company of California.

     This company was founded in 1868 by Leland Stanford and associates. The 
company celebrated its fifty-seventh anniversary January 2, 1925. It began 
business in a small office at Sacramento, and in 1881 moved its headquarters 
to San Francisco. In the great fire of April, 1906, the company lost its home 
office building. At that time the head office was moved to Los Angeles, where 
it occupies a part of the magnificient business structure known as The Pacific 
Mutual Building.

      In 1906 Mr. Cochran, who had maintained his law offices in Los Angeles 
for a number of years, became associated with the late Gail B. Johnson and 
others in consolidating the Conservative Life Insurance Company of Los Angeles 
and the Pacific Mutual, and in reorganizing the new company with Los Angeles 
as headquarters. Since then the Pacific Mutual has steadily grown in business 
and insurance service. It is the largest and oldest life insurance company in 
the western half of the United States.

     Mr. Cochran was born at Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, July 1, 1863. His 
father, Rev. George Cochran, D. D., was a prominent Methodist minister and 
missionary. His mother, Catherine Lynch Davidson, was a descendant of the 
Wesleys, founders of Methodism. When George I. Cochran was nine years old his 
father went to Japan and served six years in the Orient in missionary and 
other church work. While at Tokio, George I. Cochran attended private schools. 
After the family returned to Toronto, he continued his education in the 
Collegiate Institute and the University of Toronto, studying law in Osgoode 
Hall. He was admitted as Barrister at Law in 1888, and shortly afterward came 
to Los Angeles and in February of the same year was admitted to practice in 
the Supreme Court of California. Through his enviable qualifications as a 
lawyer he won a large and substantial practice. He also attracted attention as 
a business executive and organizer, and for these reasons he was called upon 
to undertake the heavy responsibilities of reorganizing and serving as 
president of the Pacific Mutual. He is a director of the Southern California 
Edison Company, the First National Bank of Los Angeles, The Rosedale Cemetery 
Association, the Anglo California Trust Company of San Francisco, the Federal 
Telegraph Company, Delaware, The Home Fire and Marine Insurance Company, the 
Long Beach Bath House and Amusement Company, the California Delta Farms, 
Incorporated, and others.

     Mr. Cochran was a member of the Los Angeles City Charter Commission in 
1893. He is a regent of the University of California, is a trustee and 
treasurer of the University of Southern California, and has served as a member 
of the Republican County Central Committee, and as a director of the Young 
Men's Christian Association. He is a Methodist, and a member of the 
California, Los Angeles Country, Union League, Midwick Country, Los Angeles 
Athletic, University and Jonathan Clubs at Los Angeles, and the Pacific Union 
and Bohemian Clubs at San Francisco.

     Mr. Cochran has been married twice, on August 6, 1890, to Alice Maud 
McClung of New Castle, Ontario, and on April 7, 1907, to Isabelle May McClung, 
sister of the first Mrs. Cochran.

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