By Scott Miller
smiller@scbiznews.com

Bobby Collins has few regrets in life. One is not having served in the military.
But his sense of duty has led him to service in other ways. He recently became chairman of the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce, for example.

“You build a community shoulder to shoulder,” Collins said, expressing a sense of duty.

His father, Robert Sr., was a Citadel grad who served in the Army for several years and then the Army Reserves for 21 years after that.

An “Army brat” born in Puerto Rico, Collins had a draft card but wasn’t drafted. He attended the University of Kentucky, intending to “fly fast jets” after graduation.

But his father became ill, so he returned to help his parents run the family insurance business until it was bought by a larger corporation.

“Other than being a bus boy one summer when I was 15, that’s (insurance) all I’ve ever done,” said Collins, senior vice president and S.C. general manager of PURE Insurance.

He remembers, when he was a boy, his friends making $8 an hour working on construction sites and farms. Collins worked at his father’s insurance agency, making $1.25 an hour, minimum wage at the time.

“I thought I could make more money on a farm,” Collins recalled. “My dad would say, ‘If we had a farm, you’d be on it. Welcome to the farm.’”

Collins has parlayed that experience in the family “farm” into many jobs in the field, managing captive insurance agencies, working as an independent agent for Wachovia Insurance Services and, most recently, aiding PURE’s expansion from Florida into South Carolina.

PURE is much different from the insurance Collins’ father knew. It caters to the wealthy, limiting its policies to homes valued more than $1 million, mainly coastal homes that other insurers won’t touch.

“I wish he were here to see this model — he would just giggle,” Collins said.

The PURE business model centers on the belief that newer, bigger homes can withstand hurricanes better.

“Newer, bigger, better-built homes heretofore have not received the proper rate credits for the investment they put into the home,” Collins said. “Those homes sustain 75% less damage in a hurricane.” 

And Collins stands as firmly behind the chamber as he does PURE Insurance. The business organization has grown from 30 members to 230 in six years.

“That’s not sales. That’s return on investment,” Collins said. “You can’t hoodwink 230 smart business people into investing in the chamber just because it’s the right thing to do. You have to put money back in their pockets. You have to show return on investment.”

More opportunities for that have presented themselves, he said. In the coming year, the chamber’s priorities will be supporting expansion of the Port of Charleston and helping groom the community’s future leaders.

And, fittingly, Collins also has turned his focus back to the military, which he said the chamber views as a major Charleston industry poised for job growth.

He still carries in his wallet a military coin given to him by the captain of the USS Roosevelt after a chamber mission during which he met several young soldiers.

“I’ll tell you, it’s hard to look them in the eye, young kids, and tell them how proud you are without crying,” Collins recalled. “I never served in the military. I don’t have many regrets.”  

Reach Scott Miller at 843-849-3119.