[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 25, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 TRIBUTE TO STEWART E. CONNER, MANAGING PARTNER, WYATT, TARRANT & COMBS

 Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, it is my pleasure to rise today 
in order to pay tribute to Mr. Stewart Conner of Louisville, KY. 
Stewart is the managing partner of one of Louisville's premier law 
firms and just as important a good friend of mine as well as the 
Louisville community.
  Mr. Conner grew up in Louisville, attending Atherton High School. 
After a year at Eastern Kentucky University, Conner received a 
scholarship from the University of Louisville. He graduated in 1963 as 
the valedictorian of his class, a feat he repeated 3 years later 
graduating from cum laude Louisville's law school.
  Mr. Conner came by these achievements through hard work and 
discipline, attributes he garnered from his family. Mr. Conner says his 
father believed ``that if you work hard enough you may not get 
everything you want, but you can get most anything.'' Mr. President, I 
don't believe any motto better sums up the pathway which leads to the 
American dream.
  Following school he joined the prestigious law firm Wyatt, Tarrant & 
Combs. Unfortunately, 2 years after joining the firm his Army National 
Guard unit was activated for service in Vietnam. Mr. Conner served at 
Gia Le, South Vietnam, 60 miles northwest of Danang. While he was away 
his law firm continued to pay him one half of his salary and held his 
job for his return. Because of this generosity, Mr. Conner and his 
young family did not have to suffer undue hardships.
  This loyalty was not forgotten by the young attorney. He quickly rose 
through the ranks and was elected partner in 1972, and served as 
chairman of the general corporate law section from 1980 to 1990. 
Additionally, Mr. Conner has served on the firm's executive committee 
since 1980 before beginning his current position in 1990.
  He wins rave reviews from all who deal with him on a professional and 
personal basis. Despite his numerous responsibilities, Mr. Conner has 
the ability to make each person he deals with important and unique.
  Mr. Conner also finds the time to serve on several boards, including 
the Kentucky Council on Higher Education, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, 
Old Kentucky Home Council, and the Boy Scouts of America. As you can 
imagine Mr. President, Stewart Conner is a driven and compassionate 
man.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in honoring this outstanding 
Kentuckian. In addition, I ask that an article from Business First be 
included in the Record at this point.

                  [From Business First, Jan. 3, 1994]

            Refocused Stewart Conner Chose Law Over Burgers

                            (By Ron Cooper)

       Girls and other ``distractions'' caused Stewart E. Conner's 
     grades to take a nose dive when he was a senior at Atherton 
     High School in 1958-59.
       ``I was in the top half of the bottom fourth of my class,'' 
     says Conner, ``and I was convinced I'd end up being a 
     hamburger flipper. Then my faculty adviser told me to start 
     thinking about learning a trade.''
       That was a major turning point in life for the 51-year-old 
     Conner, managing partner of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs, 
     Kentucky's largest law firm.
       ``I had decided tentatively to join the military and learn 
     a trade,'' recalls Conner. ``But my parents talked me into 
     giving college a try. Then they put it all on the line for 
     me. They gave me their (lifetime) savings of $900 for tuition 
     and room and board.''
       Conner enrolled at Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College 
     at Richmond (now Eastern Kentucky University) following 
     graduation from Atherton in 1959. He excelled academically, 
     enough to secure a scholarship to the University of 
     Louisville in his sophomore year.
       Initially, he was uncertain which career to pursue. He was 
     driven by a determination to remain in school and to make his 
     parents' financial sacrifice stand for something.
       In that he succeeded.
       He was valedictorian twice at U of L. The first time was in 
     1963, when he earned a bachelor's degree in business 
     management, then again in 1966, when he graduated from law 
     school cum laude.
       Conner says he was determined to make a mark at Eastern, 
     and later U of L. One motivation was his recollection of how 
     fellow students at Atherton had become National Merit 
     scholars. He knew he was just as capable of achieving that 
     status, he says.
       Because he had done so poorly with grades in high school, 
     he says, ``I had a bit of an inferiority complex'' to 
     overcome.
       After he earned his undergraduate degree at U of L, Conner 
     says he had a chance to enter a sales career for any number 
     of firms. That prospect did not intrigue him. A law career--
     with its emphasis on logic--did.
       Conner was the youngest of three children of the late James 
     P. and Lucille Conner, who raised their family in the 
     Highlands area. His father was a construction foreman, and 
     his mother was a long-distance telephone operator for South 
     Central Bell.
       The family lived modestly, and Stewart Conner had to work 
     for everything he achieved. He had good role models.
       ``All Dad had was a seventh-grade education, but he also 
     had a lot of street sense in how he dealt with people,'' 
     Conner says. ``And he had a strong work ethic. He believed 
     that if you work hard enough you may not get everything you 
     want, but you can get most anything.''
       Scholarships paid only a portion of his tuition during his 
     university days. Among the positions that Conner held to pay 
     the remaining portion were social worker, hod carrier and 
     clerk for a real estate title company.
       Conner says the work ethic is so ingrained in him as to be 
     almost consuming.
       Little spare time is available in his schedule of 
     overseeing the 175-lawyer Wyatt, Tarrant firm, and of 
     conducting a practice in which he serves several noteworthy 
     clients.
       His personal clients include PNC Bank, Kentucky, and Trans 
     Financial Bancorp Inc. of Bowling Green, KY.
       ``A couple of years ago, my wife Jef told me I should have 
     a hobby,'' he says. ``So I took up trains.''
       Conner assembles Lionel train sets; he has three of them 
     set up in the basement of his home in the Federal Hill 
     neighborhood near Locust Grove.
       Conner says he views Wyatt, Tarrant as a second family, and 
     little wonder.
       In 1968, two years after he joined the firm--then named 
     Wyatt, Grafton & Sloss--his Army National Guard unit was 
     activated for service in Vietnam.
       ``I was 27 years old and just earning my spurs at the firm, 
     getting to work on some larger cases,'' he says.
       At that time, he was a married man with a newborn daughter, 
     and the ink barely dry on a first mortgage. A private's pay 
     in the Army was only $127 a month, $6 less than the monthly 
     mortgage payment.
       But the Wyatt firm paid one-half of Conner's salary the 
     entire year that he served at Gia Le, South Vietnam, about 60 
     miles northwest of Danang. That allowed Conner and his 
     spouse, Nancy Flick Peterworth, to keep their home.
       Conner, who rose in the ranks to staff sergeant, served as 
     assistant to the chief of staff of his artillery unit.
       The young attorney's job at Wyatt, Tarrant was kept open, 
     awaiting him on his return from service in Vietnam in October 
     1969.
       ``Needless to say, that experience wed me to these 
     people,'' he says of his fellow partners at Wyatt. ``The firm 
     has been a constant in my life.''
       The feeling is mutual.
       ``He's an absolutely superb lawyer, extremely thorough, 
     with excellent and sound judgment along with common sense,'' 
     says Wilson Wyatt Sr., senior partner at Wyatt, Tarrant.
       Conner was hired fresh out of U of L in 1966, when Wyatt 
     learned of the young attorney from the law school dean.
       Gordon Davidson is Wyatt, Tarrant's executive-committee 
     chairman. He served as the firm's managing partner from 1978 
     until Conner succeeded him in 1990.
       He says: ``Stewart is a loyal and dedicated friend, and my 
     number-one, right-hand guy. And his devotion and loyalty to 
     the firm is unbelievable.''
       Upon his return from the war, Conner rose quickly in the 
     ranks at the law firm.
       He was elected partner in 1972, and served as chairman of 
     the general corporate law section from 1980-90. He has served 
     as a member of the firm's executive committee since 1980.
       Clients and professional associates speak highly of Conner.
       J. David Grissom, former chairman of PNC Bank, Kentucky, 
     described the attorney as ``a very thoughtful, intelligent 
     and capable individual.''
       ``Although he has an extremely heavy workload and a large 
     array of clients and is managing partner of the firm, he 
     makes you feel you are his only client,'' said Grissom, now a 
     principal in Mayfair Capital in Louisville and formerly with 
     the Wyatt firm.
       Michael Harreld, president and chief executive officer of 
     PNC Bank, Kentucky, says Conner has made a mark serving the 
     financial-services industry in the state.
       ``He's smart, very good at explaining complex legal 
     problems in lay terms,'' Harreld says. ``He's a good 
     communicator.''
       Conner represented Citizens Fidelity Bank & Trust Co. in 
     its merger with PNC Financial Corp. in 1986. That year, he 
     also worked with Wyatt, Tarrant partners in representing the 
     Bingham family in their sale of The Courier-Journal, WHAS-TV 
     and Standard Gravure Co.
       Jefferson Circuit Court Judge William McAnulty Jr. met 
     Conner when both were members of the Leadership Louisville 
     Class of 1981. He was, and is, impressed.
       ``For one of the best lawyers in the state, he has to be 
     one of the most even, down-to-earth people I've known,'' 
     McAnulty says. ``He's just a regular guy.''
       When he's not at work, Conner makes time for civic 
     activities. Among the those is serving as a member of the 
     executive committees of the Kentucky Council on Higher 
     Education and the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce, and a board 
     member of the Old Kentucky Home Council, Boy Scouts of 
     America.
       He has three daughters by two previous marriages.
       His children are Shannon Smock, 25, a teacher at Miami 
     University of Ohio; Erin Conner, 20, a sophomore at the 
     University of Dayton; and Maggie Conner, 11, a sixth-grader 
     at Louisville Collegiate School.
       He is married to the former Jef Fish, who has three 
     children by a previous marriage.
       Connor says the blended families spend two weeks a year at 
     a remote lake in Michigan.
       His spouse is the former executive director of Leadership 
     Kentucky. They've been married for five years.
       Jef Conner says she and her husband are very compatible.
       She is former president of the Ronald McDonald House board 
     in Louisville, a charitable enterprise that has her husband's 
     full support.
       The couple spent part of their Christmas Eve decorating 
     trees at the 20-bedroom facility at 550 S. First St., where 
     parents of hospitalized children stay.
       The couple attends Southeast Christian Church.
       Jef Conner describes her husband as ``very easy going and 
     the most patient person I've ever known. He's also my best 
     friend.''
       Speaking professionally, Stewart Conner says he expects 
     Wyatt, Tarrant to remain a predominant force in the region's 
     legal community. And he hopes that he can build on his 
     leadership skills.
       ``There's a difference between a manager and a leader,'' he 
     says. ``A manager tells you how to go from point A to point 
     B. A leader takes you.'' 

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