Pioneering Efforts Led to AFA's Birth
Much of Cameron’s success was the result of pioneering efforts to make insurance available to the working class. He was an early leader in voluntary payroll deduction insurance, known today as worksite marketing. Cameron sold group accident and health insurance to state agency employees and to trade associations. His agency was also one of the first of its kind to offer insurance to schoolteachers. Building on that beginning, AFA is now the largest provider of voluntary disability insurance to teachers across the United States.

As the agency prospered, the need arose for more office space. Cameron constructed his own office buildings on Classen Boulevard in 1954, building one of the first suburban office buildings in Oklahoma City. In 1959, C.W. and Gene McCrory started the affiliated North American Insurance Agency to focus on Property and Casualty insurance.

The North American Company in Chicago experienced changes in ownership in the 1950s and was eventually acquired by the CIT Group. Since CIT wanted to focus on selling individual insurance, Cameron proposed that he take on all of the accident and health business previously handled by the Cameron Agency for North American. His son, C.B., had recently returned home from the Air Force, and the pair decided to start their own insurance underwriter. In 1960, American Fidelity was born.