E.G. Bowman & Co.

JOHN L. PROCOPE, the chairman of insurance brokerage E.G. BOWMAN & CO. for more than two decades, died July 15 from complications of pneumonia. He was 82.

Since 1982, Procope had served as chairman of E.G. Bowman, a Wall Street insurance brokerage firm founded by his wife, Ernesta G. Procope. E.G. Bowman ranks as the largest minority- and woman-owned insurance brokerage in the United States, the company said.

Previously, Procope was president and publisher of the New York Amsterdam News, the country's largest black-oriented newspaper.

"John's great marketing expertise and focus on sales spurred our growth success; but even more important, his humanity, ethics, humor and kindness touched and inspired generations of people," Ernesta Procope said in a statement.

A native New Yorker, John Procope was a past president of the National Newspaper Publishers Association and a trustee of Howard University for 15 years. Over the past 25 years, he was a trustee or board member of nonprofit organizations such as the New York University Graduate School of Business Advisory Board, the YMCA of Greater New York and the New York State Crime Commission.

A graduate of Morgan State University with a bachelor's degree in business administration, he also attended New York University Graduate School of Business.