"H" is for Hipp, Francis Moffett

“H” is for Hipp, Francis Moffett [1911-1995]. Insurance executive.  After graduating from Furman, Hipp joined his father’s company, Liberty Life Insurance. The Greenville-based firm also owned radio stations in Columbia and Charleston. When Hipp’s father died in 1943, the company’s directors elected him president and chairman of the board. An energetic leader, Hipp expanded the company into the Southeast through its own agents and nationally through financial institutions. In 1950, the Broadcasting Company of the South was formed for the company’s broadcasting entities—and, in 1953, launched its first television station. In 1967 the Liberty Corporation was created, with Liberty Life, Cosmos Broadcasting, and Surety Investments merged into it. As chairman of the State Development Board from 1959 to 1963, Francis Moffett Hipp was credited with major successes in recruiting new industry to South Carolina.