BANKING / FINANCE : Parker Kennedy Named 5th President of First American Title Insurance Co.

It’s gone through many changes in nearly 100 years, but First American Title Insurance Co. hasn’t changed its top executive often.

The Santa Ana company, one of the largest title insurers in the nation, recently promoted Parker S. Kennedy to the position of president. Kennedy, 41, only the fifth president in the company’s history, succeeds his father, Donald P. Kennedy, 70, who was promoted to chairman.

The elder Kennedy succeeds William G. Was, who was chairman for the last 5 years and moved to the post of vice chairman and head of the firm’s Arizona operations. Donald Kennedy, who joined the firm in 1948, had been president for 26 years.

The younger Kennedy, who joined the firm in 1977, had been executive vice president for the last 5 years. That position was filled by the promotion of Lawrence M. White, 50, a 30-year veteran of First American Title.

The Kennedys are descendants of Charles E. Parker, who began the firm in a storefront office in Santa Ana in 1889, the same year that Orange County came into being.

First American Title has more than 4,500 offices and agents nationwide and in Guam, Mexico, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Great Britain.