Butch Burch founded Burch Insurance in June 1990 and has owned and operated it ever since.
As of the beginning of 2016, the Houston-based agency will be owned and run by Dawn Spencer and her husband Jerry.
Dawn is a Houston High School graduate who has worked at Burch since April 1994. She held a job for years with Mid-America Dairy after getting experience in the insurance field for another Houston agency, and has been Burch’s agency manager for about two years. Jerry grew up in Eunice and is a graduate of Summersville High School. He has been doing home inspections for Burch for about two years after retiring from a 27-year career with the Missouri Department of Transportation, finishing as the head mechanic in the area.
The Spencers plan to retain the agency’s familiar name.
“They’re really going to do a good job,” Burch said. “They have some really good ideas about what to do.”
“We want to emphasize to people that we’re keeping everything pretty much the same,” Dawn said. “What it’s all about is the customers, and Butch taught me from day one that service is the most important thing. We’ll continue the same great service.”
Dawn said healthcare will remain a priority.
“Healthcare is an especially big concern because of the cost, and there’s controversy surrounding it in our country while we’re looking at different ways of handling it,” she said. “There are constantly changes that affect our lives, and someone needs to help people sort through all those changes and wade through the waters, so to speak. We stay on top of it all so we can do that.”
Before starting his insurance business, Burch held several jobs, including as a high school teacher and basketball coach in both Houston and Mansfield. He and his wife, Beth (who are both Piedmont natives), have purchased a home in Gulf Shores, Ala., and will move there full-time when their home in Texas County sells.
In addition to its headquarters on U.S. 63 south, Burch Insurance also has an office in Springfield and employs a total of 10 people.
“I don’t take a lot of credit for what’s gone on with this company, because my biggest decisions have been to work with good people,” Burch said. “This success of this business is due to the people I’ve hired; we have some really good people who are very personable, they have care-taker personalities and they work hard.
“People who work for us are honestly concerned about taking care of people – it’s not just a job.”
“He’s absolutely right,” Dawn said. “That’s what separates us from the Internet companies or people who sell it in your home and then move on and you never hear from them again. But it’s easy to like the people we work with – our customers are all individual and unique and we enjoy working with them and getting to know them.”
Burch Insurance’s Houston office is located at 1717 S. U.S. 63 in Houston. Information is available online at www.burchins.com or on Facebook. The Houston office is open 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. The phone number is 417-967-9797.
“People who work for us are honestly concerned about taking care of people – it’s not just a job.”
– DAWN SPENCER