William E. Straub, 1948-2013: Financial pro developed trust, gave to charities

William E. Straub.

William E. Straub, 64, a Toledo native who settled in the Atlanta area and became a financial services professional, died Feb. 1 in his Duluth, Ga., home.

He learned 18 months ago that he had pancreatic cancer, said his brother, John C. Straub of Washington, a former chairman of the University of Toledo board of trustees and a lawyer formerly with Shumaker Loop & Kendrick.

Mr. Straub was executive vice president and an owner of Legacy Executive Benefits, a national consulting firm that specializes in retirement, deferred compensation, and executive benefit plans. He was a co-founder of ERI Advisors, a regional firm. He previously was a senior vice president of Retirement Capital Group SE.

“He was the consummate salesman,” his brother said. “Selling intangibles is a tough business. He just engendered trust and confidence that he was an honest, straightforward guy. That was his success in the financial services industry. People trusted him.”

He was born Sept. 29, 1948, in Toledo to Claire and Edward Straub and grew up in the Old West End. He was a 1966 graduate of St. Francis de Sales High School and played on the golf team there.

He was a 1970 graduate of the University of Dayton and taught for a time in the city school system before he pulled up stakes and moved to Atlanta. He began his career selling life insurance for what was then Bankers Life, of Des Moines, Iowa.

“I knew he wanted to make his own way and go someplace else and see what he could do in a big city,” his brother said.

Their father was an accountant and president of his own firm, Edward L. Straub & Co., and served as a volunteer leader in local charitable and civic groups. Mr. Straub, like his father, established social and personal relationships with ease.

“He was much more of a friendly, outgoing guy,” his brother said. “He was more like my father — warm, easily approachable, the kind of person a lot of other people were attracted to.”

Mr. Straub was a former chairman of the 65 Roses Club of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He was on the board of MARR Inc., which offers long-term, residential addiction treatment. The group’s annual golf outing, to be held May 20 at Laurel Springs Golf Club in Suwanee, Ga., is being dedicated to his memory.

He also was active in Atlanta Urban Young Life, a group for Christian youth.

He continued to golf.

“He effortlessly played at a different level than I’ve ever been able to play. He was a natural athlete,” his brother said.

Surviving are his wife, Betty Ann Straub; stepson, Douglas Dubois; stepdaughter, daughter, Kari Andrews; sister, Sue Straub, and brother John Straub.

Memorial services were last week in Birmingham United Methodist Church, Alpharetta, Ga.

The family suggests tributes to the Rally Foundation for Childhood Cancer Research in Sandy Springs, Ga.