We’d like to introduce you to our father, Lenny Dobens.

Lenny was born in 1932 in Nashua, New Hampshire, the youngest of three boys. When he was just a toddler, Lenny was sent to live at the Daniel Webster Home for Children (formerly the New Hampshire Orphan’s Home) when his parents could no longer provide for him, spending the seasons of his childhood isolated from his family. When he turned sixteen, Lenny “aged out” of the facility, deemed an adult. Despite a lonely childhood without the basic needs of a family’s love and support, Lenny beat the odds. He emerged a bright, enthusiastic young man filled to the brim with confidence, and a desire to make a difference in the world. As time went on, his big heart, caring nature, and million-dollar smile continued to bubble to the surface, leading his peers to name him class president of the Nashua High School Class of 1951. His high school teachers were so inspired by his optimism and perpetual spirit that when they learned that he was the first in his family to ever graduate from the eighth grade, they personally took up a collection to help pay for Lenny’s college tuition.

The legend of “Lenny Dobens” was born.

After serving as a Russian linguist in the USAF during the Korean War, Lenny proudly earned his bachelor’s degree in business at UNH while working for New York Life Insurance Company, a “company he kept” his entire 55 year career. He fell in love with his career and devoted his life to helping the seniors of New Hampshire better understand the complicated process of Medicare supplement insurance. It was his personal motto to “do something good for someone in need” that made him successful and drew people to him in droves. He was beloved by his clients, the majority of whom he considered his “family” – perhaps filling that most basic need of the little boy who grew up without one.

His devotion to his clients was on full display while in the CCU at Mass General Hospital, dependent on a heart pump to keep him alive during open enrollment. He was determined to make sure his clients were taken care of, personally sorting through paperwork and answering messages just days before succumbing to heart disease in 2014.

We can think of no better way to carry on the legacy of our father, Lenny Dobens, who founded his company based upon the simple principle of helping others. That’s the true measure of a man who genuinely loved what he did and the people he did it for. You would have loved him right back.

It has become our singular mission to carry his spirit forward as we usher his beloved company into a new era.