With our origins beginning in seventeenth century England and our pioneer descendants migrating to America, the foundation of perseverance and integrity of Loren D. Stark’s company was established.
Loren D. Stark’s grandfather Francis Marion Stark moved to Iowa in the late 1800’s and at the turn of the twentieth century circa 1901, Francis’s son Leander Jesse Stark, left Iowa with his wife Mary Evaline Dayton, and young son, Loren Dayton Stark, journeying to Navina in the Oklahoma Indian Territory. There Leander became a banker and in 1910 established L. J. Stark & Son as a life insurance consulting practice specializing in Estate Planning and Employee Benefits. Then in 1917 Leander became the state supervisor of American Life Insurance in Guthrie, Oklahoma. Loren D. Stark, at the time, was attending Northwestern University, but interrupted his studies to serve as a Second Lieutenant in the Artillery when the United States entered the First World War. Loren returned to finish his studies and graduate in 1921 then joined his father who expanded the business to Tulsa.
After enduring the Depression for years and its grim trajectory continuing, Loren scanned the geographical horizon for a city that would become a metropolis of opportunity and prosperity. He chose Houston, Texas where in 1938 he brought his family and young son Donald Dayton Stark (Don). Loren continued to operate under the name L. J. Stark & Son until Leander’s death in 1940 when he changed the name to the Loren D. Stark Company.
Don joined his father in 1957 following his graduation from Wharton Business School and serving as a First Lieutenant in the Navy. As he surveyed the business climate in Houston Don identified the greatest opportunity to be in Employee Benefits and foresaw the demand for increasing specialization. He received a law degree from South Texas College of Law in 1966 and opened a law practice that he operated in conjunction with the Loren D. Stark Company until the early 1990’s. During the recession of the 80’s, Don again envisioned a market demanding more specialization in Employee Benefits, specifically Retirement Plans, and directed all his attention to developing the Loren D. Stark Company into a boutique retirement plan consulting firm.
Loren Dayton Stark II (Dayton) joined his father, Don Stark, in 2006 after attending the University of Houston. Having been born into a family of entrepreneurs, the business environment came easily to him and Dayton anticipated the need for international operations in the twenty-first century. He opened the Loren D. Stark Company’s first back office in Vietnam in 2007 and then in 2011 expanded the operation to the Philippines, creating significant leverage that allowed the Loren D. Stark Company to enter into multiple cities and preserve a legacy that will continue for generations.
With the Stark tradition transcending a century the legacy of endurance and honor will persevere. As the family name Stark suggests when translated from its German origins; “stark” means “strong”.
