The Clarksons have been operating the Allstate insurance agency in Fountain Hills for 45 years, but the family is more than just an insurance provider in town. They are one of Fountain Hills’ first families.

The business was first opened in 1975 by Jim Clarkson, who ran it out of a booth in a Sears in Scottsdale. Clarkson came to Fountain Hills when a friend of his mentioned a new town being built over the hill.

“I went to school and got my bachelor and master from the University of Arizona and, when I came into the Scottsdale-Phoenix area, I was looking for place that more resembled the Catalina foothills in Tucson,” Jim Clarkson said. “That was my idea of what Arizona looked like. A friend of mine that I worked with said I should take a ride out to this new town called Fountain Hills, and it was exactly what I was looking for.”

Clarkson was able to watch as Fountain Hills grew from a town with one main street and one social hot spot, to the town it is today.

“Originally, they were telling people back then that there were about 5,000 people living here, but it wasn’t even close,” Jim Clarkson said. “I mean, summertime you could drive 70 mph down Saguaro, the only main street that went through Fountain Hills. The social spot for the town was the racquet ball club. But that is what the early days were like.”

More than just an insurance man, Clarkson likes to give back to the town, whether that is by helping some of the less fortunate families in town around the holidays or through volunteering his time.

“My favorite volunteer activity was youth sports,” Jim Clarkson explained. “Primarily Little League baseball. I spent 12 years as manager, sponsor and board member of the league. My major contribution was really turning the whole league around. In 1994 there were only two members left on the board, so I had to recruit some new people who had the same ideas I did about the league.”

Jim would go on to retire from Allstate in 2003, but the business remained family owned with his brother, John, taking over.

Then, in 2006, John passed the business over to his nephew, Jim’s son, James “J.W.” Clarkson. J.W. hadn’t always planned on following in his father’s footsteps, but life had other plans.

“To be honest, I am the oldest of three kids and my younger brother and sister both came to work in here during college and I had zero interest,” J.W. Clarkson said. “Then I graduated from U of A and moved back up here. I had just gotten married and had a kid on the way, so I fell into it and stuck with it.”

Allstate is located 16715 E. Palisades Blvd., unit 104.